Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars
by happy-rea
Summary: Lucy Smith is a geek on holiday in Cardiff, she spent a lot of money at the Doctor Who experience and fainted while walking through the bay. She woke up surrounded by Jack, Suzie, Owen and Tosh. After talking to her Jack agreed that she could join Torchwood but they both agree that she is not allowed to change the future. Three months later, Gwen joins and the show starts.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is is.**

**The big one.**

**The one we've all been waiting for!**

**In all honesty I've been working on this story for years and with all of series 1 complete and my mate Jeremy editing I finally feel like it's ready to be shown to the world. Please let me know what you think.**

**Summery: Lucy Smith is a geek on holiday in Cardiff, after spending a lot of money at the Doctor Who experience fainted while walking down Roald Dalh Plass. She woke up surrounded by Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello, Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato. After talking to her Jack agreed that she could join the Torchwood team. Three months later PC Gwen Cooper starts becoming interested in what it is that Torchwood actually do and Lucy knows that as much as she would like to she's not allowed to change anything.**

**Enjoy!**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy walked through Cardiff on her Doctor Who tour, she walked down the plass grinning up at the water tower. Her new signed DVDs were in her dalek bag, which was also new. While she had another plastic bag with a few more DVDs and some posters, she had saved for ages and spent loads of money at the shop after the Doctor Who museum, her friends – if you could really call them friends, more like people she knew and got along with - called her a geek and she never claimed that she wasn't. Her was camera out taking pictures of as many of the important shots as she could, planning to fill an entire album with them with her photos next to shots from the episode. Once she got a picture of her by the tower she would go down to the 'tourist centre' and get pictures at the memorial that had been put up there before going to a coffee shop for Ianto.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Her vision went black and she didn't remember collapsing until she woke up with familiar looking faces around her.

"Holy hell" She cursed sitting up quickly, "Sorry." She added "It's just... I am such a big fan, are you filming?" They all looked at each other, "I don't see any cameras." She looked around them trying to spot a TV camera.

"Owen," The leader said, "is she ok?"

"Well she looks fine but it could be concussion. No other symptoms though"

"You call him Owen when you're not filming? Odd" She said grabbing her bag and pulling out her notebook, turning to the first blank page quickly. "Yeah err, you can just ignore the fanfic and can I have your autographs _please_?"

"Fanfic?" The Asian woman asked,

"Err yeah. I mean it's not brilliant stuff just a couple of one shots and I'm working on a full length one. Well I _was_ working on a full length one. Oh and bits of a Harry Potter crossover – I was bored and I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Just forget I ever said that. But please can I have your autograph?" She said as she stopped rambling and trying not to blush and turn completely pink.

The man in the WWII coat was looking through her dalek bag and staring at the DVDs, "What are these?"

"Signed DVDs; Doctor Who series one to four, the specials and a bunch of classics, and Torchwood 1-3." She replied confused, "Listen if you don't want to give me an autograph that's fine but can I ask one question?"

"Go for it" The tall leader shrugged hoping to learn more about her.

"Why are you filming with Suzie? Are you doing a prequel cause I personally would love to know more of Suzie's role in Torchwood. Plus you get to see more of the others, we all missed them. Especially Ianto, it would mean Ianto was alive."

"What do you know about Torchwood? How do you know Suzie's name? And what do you mean Ianto's dead?"

She looked at the team who were gazing at her, eyes demanding answers. "You are fucking kidding me. This has got to be a joke right, this is one of those hidden camera things to see what people will believe."

"Suzie take her inside." He ordered, "She knows too much and I want to know where these DVDs came from."

"From the shop. I bought them from the shop at the end of the experience, I have the receipt in my bag as well as a couple of posters and books." She continued to look at them "You're not joking are you? Doctor Owen Harper? Toshiko Sato? Suzie Costello? Ianto Jones? Captain Jack Harkness, the Face of Boe?" She grabbed the DVDs out of Jack's hand while he was still in shock, "You can't see these, well Jack can see series one and two, bits of, but no way can you see anymore than that."

"Says who?"

"Who do you think?" She replied raising an eyebrow.

"Why can't we see them?" Suzie asked

"Spoilers." She giggled.

"How do you know those names?" Jack asked, "No one here knows that name."

"This really is real isn't it? Fucking rift." At that point the shock of everything and what had happened caught up with her. Lucy turned completely white and collapsed.

"Shit" Owen cursed.

"We need to continue this story inside. Get her into the hub and one of the cells. Keep the stuff in her bag but don't look at it." Jack said decisively.

Owen picked her up in a fireman's lift, "She's too light Jack." He carried her down the plass and into the hub.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

She woke up in one of the cells her bag in there with her, at first she was confused as to where she was and then she remembered. Somehow she had changed universe and ended up inside the Whovian world. She whooped with excitement at the possibility of seeing all the aliens and maybe even seeing different worlds, allowing herself to think about the good side of things and not what she had left behind.

Ianto grinned as he heard the sounds of joy coming from the cells. "She sounds happy enough, not the normal reaction when people wake up in the cells" He commented, "Do you want me to get her some food? I'm going to order pizza for us anyway."

Jack nodded and Ianto descended the stairs.

"Hi."

"Hi" She smiled at him, "you're really real aren't you Ianto Jones? I've not walked onto an extreme practical joke and a TV set have I?"

"No, this is real. I'm ordering pizza what do you want?"

"Um, ham and mushroom please." She replied, "Soo any idea when I'll be let out?"

"That's up to Jack not me." Ianto said "I don't have any say in the matter, I just tidy up after them."

"Bollocks. You do loads more than that Ianto, don't play yourself down. You might be in the background but that doesn't mean you do nothing, they'd be surprised how difficult it is to live without you. God you're _Ianto_ Jones, do you know how many people love you in my world?" Ianto was bemused but let her continue to ramble. "_Everyone_ who loves Torchwood is a Ianto fan, Jack is in a close second in terms of popularity. It's like the Doctor is my hero, but you, you're so human and..." She sighed and then rested her forehead against the glass door "Listen I don't know how to help her or even if I should, but I promise you when I am free of this I will stand with you every step of the way. If I am in a position where I can help I will help, I promise. You deserve your second chance and I know how much it would mean to you."

He nodded and went slightly pale when her realised who she was talking about, "Thank you" he replied, "I'll order your pizza and add a chocolate pudding as well."

"You really are a lifesaver." Lucy grinned, going back to leaning against the wall the serious moment over. "I've gone a whole 3 hours without chocolate **and** I fainted twice. I need my fix."

He started to walk away but she called him back, "Ianto?" He turned round and raised an eyebrow in question, "Thanks" the dark haired girl said simply.

"For what?" The welsh man asked

"Just thanks" She shrugged and smiled.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

He didn't say anything and left walking back up the stairs to Jack and the rest of the team.

"Maybe we should just talk to her Jack. I really don't think she's a problem."

"She knows things others shouldn't know." He replied

"If it's a TV program like she says then that would make sense. Maybe watch an episode to let her prove it." He shrugged, he knew he didn't have to explain what he had said as Jack would have been watching, he could only hope that he didn't ask what she had meant when she offered to help. "It's not my job to tell you what to do." He added, aware that he had potentially crossed the line.

"No" Jack agreed "it's not." He spoke in a way that meant the conversation was over, Ianto shrugged and left the room, leaving a mug of coffee on his bosses desk.

He continued to watch her before suddenly getting up and saying. "I'm going to speak to her." He passed the rest of the team as he walked down to the cells and he could tell that they were all talking about this anomaly of a girl and what it would mean if she really had come from a different world. Tosh was busy looking at different fantasy websites trying to get as much knowledge as possible, while Owen was moaning about the extra work this was going to give him whilst also making notes about things that may be different in the other universe, both medical and technological. Susie wasn't saying anything but instead was working with more force than was strictly necessary.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hi Jack." Lucy smiled at him, "Come to interrogate me."

"If it's true why aren't you devastated?" He asked straight away.

"Because I have nothing left for me anymore, I mean there's Becky, but she'll be fine without me. She has been for a while now." Her voice was serious and she sighed at the thought of what in her original universe. But she shrugged it off and smiled at Jack, her voice became more excited as she continued.

"I've dreamt of travelling across the stars for so many years now Jack. I don't want to run and never look back, although it might sound like it and it's very tempting. I just want to see everything the universe has to offer, I want to look out at the different planets and see different suns in the sky. I want to stand on a planet that doesn't have green grass, or a blue sky. To stand in the middle of a frozen world. To see different constellations. To ride the solar wave and finish anywhere."

Her eyes sparkled and Jack couldn't help but see the similarities between her and the Doctor; the thrill of the universe. There was something else hidden in her eyes as well but before he had time to think about it she continued and it disappeared.

"I want to see cultures that are completely different to mine, to gaze at something no other human will. Or won't for centuries to come. I want to do everything possible. And here, I can't travel across worlds, I know that, I'm only in Cardiff after all. But to know that I still have the chance, no matter how small, of seeing other people from different cultures, the chance to know what thousands, millions, of others don't; to know that when I look into the sky there might be people on other planets doing the same thing and knowing that the universe is teeming with life. Let me stay."

He stayed silent and she continued to plead her case, "I won't tell you what happens in the stories I know for certain, I'll keep the timeline as similar as possible. I swear, I'll let you lock up my DVDs so no one will know your past or any more about the Doctor than you want them to. I want my chance Captain. I _need_ my chance to fly."

"How much of my future do you know?" He asked.

She sighed and shut her eyes trying to work out what to tell him to dissuade him, "Bad Wolf, Gray, Boe. I don't know everything, but I know enough. There are 31 Torchwood episodes, another 10 due to come out in a couple of weeks that I know the rough story line for. I'm not saying I'm going to be the best alien hunter you've ever met or even if I'll be a good one. But I am asking for you to give me a chance and if I suck at it then help me find somewhere to live in this world. Help me find a life. But let me keep my memories. Let me know that I am sharing this world with other species and with people who have travelled through time and space. Please"

He thought for a bit then nodded, "Ok, but I want to see the episodes with me in it, the ones that have already happened in my personal timeline. I'll bring out another safe for you to put them in and I won't know the code. That way no one can see what they shouldn't." He opened the cell door and she smiled at him before saying shyly.

"Err, can I still have that autograph?"

Jack laughed, a proper laugh that was rarely heard. "Maybe when you earn your place here. By the way what's your name?"

She laughed as well and walked out of the cell and with Jack into the main hub. "Lucy" She replied, "Lucy Smith"

"Nice to meet you Miss Smith."  
"You too Captain Harkness"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Should I do the introductions, or do you already know?" Jack asked.

"I know," she replied, "But I don't know all of the hub," She turned to look all around her and saw Myfwany soar above them. "God she's gorgeous, can I meet her?"

Tosh laughed as she joined them, "You don't want to meet us properly but the dinosaur you do."

"Look at her though, she's stunning and real and **alive** in the 21st Century." Lucy replied still following the flight of the Pterdactron.

"Maybe later." Jack said as Ianto appeared with the take out. "Lucy this is everyone, everyone this is Lucy" There was a mutterings of hello from the rest of Torchwood before Jack continued "First we need to work out what we are going to do with you."

"Well I've got nothing apart from clothes on my back and the stuff in my bag. And I can't imagine them being useful, especially as they need to be locked up. I suppose I'll need somewhere to live, a job, a life... everything."

Ianto put the pizzas down on the table as he sat down. "I've got a spare room, you can have that."

She looked up at him, determined to work out if he was being serious. "Really?"

"Yeah, I won't charge you rent not until things get settled down, but you'll have to help with keeping it clean and tidy and the cooking."

"I'm a decent cook" She offered.

Ianto looked at Jack, "Seems to me that's the best option, at least until she sorts herself out and is able to stand on her own two feet."

"I might have some clothes that will fit you." Tosh offered and Susie made a non committal sound of agreement.

"Thanks." Lucy smiled at them, "I mean they probably won't be my kind of clothes, because Tosh manages to look stunning in these dresses and Susie's bigger than me. But I'll take anything offered, I'll go clothes shopping later on in the week to try and get the essentials; underwear, jeans, t-shirts, hoodies - that kind of thing."

Tosh smiled and blushed a bit at the compliment that Lucy gave her but privately agreed that her clothes wouldn't suit the new girl. Jack thought about it then nodded.

"Ok, and I'll give you a job here for now. I figure you're acting pretty well with the whole changing universe thing, that Torchwood might just be the place for you. You can stay and work here for a few months and then I'll rethink it through with you. "

"Thank you Captain" Lucy said sincerely, "it's more than I could imagine."

"I don't want you going out into the field for a while though, not until you're trained with a gun to a decent level at least. So until then you can stay here with Ianto while we go out and help him with the archives."

"Sounds fine to me." Lucy shrugged "I wasn't expecting to be completely thrown into the deep end, although the rift seems to have done a good enough job at that. Am I only helping out Ianto or do you want me to help the others too?"

Jack looked at the rest of the team waiting to hear what they had to say, Suzie was the first to speak.

"I'm part the way through research on the glove so I don't need any help until I've finished that. I want to get that done myself – it's fascinating."

Lucy gave a small nod of acceptance knowing that meant she probably had a few weeks until Gwen joined the picture and she knew what was going to happen.

Tosh on the other hand shrugged.

"Sure you can help me. I'm not sure how much you'll understand of the complex stuff..." She paused for Lucy to respond.

"Almost certainly nothing, but if it helps you to tell me then do so anyway. I don't mind being a sounding board."

"You'll need to be trained up on how to use the system anyway as well as basic things like how to hack into other people's computers, CCTV, Crimnet – which is the police software. And then once you can do that I'll get you hacking into the government. Nothing too complex but enough that you won't need to ask me every time you need something done."

"Only the basic stuff then." Lucy couldn't help but give a weary smile,

"Well it is basic." Tosh said with a nervous laugh

"Only to you Tosh." Jack laughed, "But it is stuff that you'll need to know, Lucy, so make sure you listen."

"Well I'm not sure how much use you'll be to me." Owen admitted, "Unless you want to tidy up after me, in which case be my guest."

"No thanks" Lucy retorted knowing she needed to be straight with Owen from the start. He was a nice guy but completely sarcastic and she planned to make sure he knew where the line was from the beginning. "I've had enough of cleaning up after people to last me a life time. And that was for people I loved as well, not sarcastic doctors with bad bedside manners."

"Well, new girl. I think you might fit in after all. Although if you're going to be helping the tea-boy then you're pretty much the cleaner's assistant aren't you." Owen smirked.

"Hell no! Ianto was introduced as the _archivist_ not tea-boy. He only clears up after you because you're still a petulant child who hasn't learnt to pick up his toys. And my name is Lucy – learn to use it."

The doctor looked like he was going to reply but Jack stepped in.

"Ok children, let's continue this later. Lucy, first you need a full physical. Owen, once you've done it, I want a comparison with our DNA and data to see if it differs, something like that is going to be of vital importance in the future. Everyone else get back on with your work. Lucy we'll do this now and in a few days time just so we can make sure we have the right data as a baseline. The travelling through the rift may cause it to be different to your normal. If the results are too different we'll do another one a week after the second. I don't make any assumptions on my teams health, ok?"

"Is this in the med bay?" Lucy asked slightly nervous, "Because that's not exactly private." She pulled awkwardly on the sleeves of her hoodie trying to hide as much of herself as possible.

"I'll stick up the curtain so no one can see in." Owen said with a shrug, although immediately making a mental note that she was so uncomfortable with the idea - the last time he had seen a reaction like hers at the idea of a medical examination was when he was a student doctor and the patient in question had been self-harming for years. He hoped this wasn't the case now, but he couldn't help but remember how light she was when he carried her into the hub. "Don't worry, it's confidential between the two of us. Jack's the only other person who can get into the medical records and he only does that if it an emergency and I'm unable to. I'm only able to tell him anything if you let me, confidential means confidential."

"I'll only look at it if I absolutely need to." Jack said when Lucy looked wearily up at him, "I've never looked at Suzie's or Tosh's and I've only seen Ianto's once. Don't worry."

"Ok." She took a deep breath, "Ok, let's do it now before I change my mind and decide I don't want to be part of Torchwood after all."

"I'd need your med record even if you decided not to stay with Torchwood" Jack said seriously, understanding how worried she was about this but made sure she knew that there was no choice. "So I could set it up in the real world and so Owen could compare yours with someone else's. We have no information on the difference between worlds, and we need to know of any potential differences just for your safety if nothing else."

"Great. So just to be clear I have no choice about having a full medical." Lucy said sarcastically

"Nope," Owen agreed before leading Lucy into the med bay and putting the screen up so no one else could see.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"So before I start is there anything you want to tell me?" Owen asked Lucy seriously as she sat awkwardly on the side of the bed.

"I dunno." SHe shrugged.

"Nothing you want to tell me? That I'm going to find out about anyway..." He said carefully not looking at her, while he got everything set up.

She stayed quiet and Owen could tell she was trying to work up the courage to try and say something. He sat next to her, putting things back down on the tray and looked at her seriously.  
"I may be a bit of a sarcastic twat but I'm a damn good doctor - although I prefer it when my patients are already dead. Confidential means confidential, I'm not going to tell anyone what I learn from this, unless it is absolutely needed. That would only be if you were dying or something like that. And I would hope that in those moments you wouldn't really give a shit."

"I've got some scars." Lucy said quietly

"Self inflicted?" Owen replied also quietly, "Nothing shameful in it if they are, we all struggled at some point in our lives." Lucy gave a small harsh laugh.

"Let's just say I didn't have the best upbringing and leave it at that."

"My mum kicked me out on my 16th birthday" Owen said as he got off the bed and picked up the different medical instruments again. "Hoodie off, I need to get your blood pressure and a blood sample."

Lucy pulled her hoodie off and gave him a small smile at the t-shirt she was wearing, the Torchwood logo on top of the TARDIS.

"At some point that's going to stop being odd." Owen commented after staring at it for a second. "What's that blue box?"

"The TARDIS" Lucy replied automatically glad to be back on safer ground. "It's the form of the Doctor's Time Travel machine, got stuck that way '63. It's meant to blend in - but the chameleon circuit is broken. She's beautiful though."

"I'll take your word for it." Owen agreed took her blood pressure. "Right let's start with the basics. Full name?"

"Can this bit be confidential too?" Lucy asked sarcastically, "I don't like it."

Owen just stared at her and didn't say anything, she sighed. "Lucinda Elizabeth Smith." The doctor raised an eyebrow at her name and Lucy pulled a face. "I hate the name Lucinda, makes me think of old and stuffy woman. I refuse to respond to it -my name is Lucy."

He smirked, "Ok, when's your birthday Lucinda? You'll feel a small stabbing pain - but I need to get a blood sample" He held up the needle, and she winced at the thought before looking away and presenting her arm. He was impressed with her ability to not show any discomfort from the pain as he removed enough blood to store and to use for research.  
She refused to say anything until he sighed, "fine - when were you born, _Lucy_?" Lucy smiled at him before replying.

"3rd March - hang on what's the date?"

"16th June 2007" Owen said not looking up as he pulled the syringe out.

"Then... 1984. I turned 23 a couple of months ago"

"Do you know your blood type?"

"No clue, sorry." She said shaking her head.

"Any medical issues? Allergies?" He said pulling a thermometer out at quickly taking her temperature

"Nope"

"Hmm... your temperature is a bit higher than I would normally like - but I don't know if that's your normal or not. Are you currently getting over a bug, had a cold?"

"No." She shrugged "Been feeling fine. Apart from the fact I fainted, twice" Lucy added the last bit with a wry smile.

"When?" He looked up from his paperwork.

"Just before I got here. I must have fainted, because last thing I remember I was walking down the plass in my world with a bit of a headache. Then it's black and I'm waking up to see you all staring at me and obviously when I realised this whole situation was real."

"No history of fainting in the past, do you often feel dizzy?"

"I'm normally fine." She said starting to feel uncomfortable again. "Surely it was the effect of being taken by the rift..."

"I wouldn't know." He said returning to her file, "It's not like I've had people to study who have travelled in such a way. And even if I did we've not even heard of anyone travelling like you have from one parallel universe to another, not outside of fiction anyway."

"Mickey, Rose and the Doctor did." Lucy said, "The doctor said there was no risk, only a bit of background radiation. Void stuff - you can see it looking through 3D glasses."

"3D glasses?" Owen thought, "we should have them somewhere, if not they're not difficult to get."

"It makes no difference to my health."

"No but it would be interesting to see, any side effect of the background radiation that you know of?"

"If someone opens the void - the gap between the universes - and I'm nearby I'd get pulled in. Anything else you need to know?"

"Well I'd love a scan of your brain." He pulled out a small machine from a box. "This is an alien scanner. I'll get one of your body, so I can see any old broken bones and such like and then I'll do a more in-depth one of your brain. Only takes a few minutes."

"Great." She sighed, "and then will we be done?"

"Then we'll be nearly done. I'd like to have a look at your scars." He set the scanner running and Lucy stiffened.

"Why?" She asked coldly.

"So that I have an idea of how much damage there was and how much damage would be needed to make things a hell of a lot worse."

"Fair bit of damage and probably quite a lot. There was a knife nearby and toys left on the floor"

"At least tell me where they are, if you are not going to show me. I'd like to know where any potential danger area's are."

"Base of my back and a couple on my stomach."

"I should really see them." He said turning the scanner off and having a look at the information, "You've broken a few bones."

"Left arm twice, right arm once, my right wrist and left leg once and each foot once as well." Lucy said with no emotion, "I used to be quite clumsy although it's got better recently."

"I can imagine. They healed fairly well, although your left arm looks slightly weaker - you're at risk of breaking that one again with a fall if you land awkwardly." He made another note in her file before looking up at her again with his stethoscope around his neck "Well if you refuse to let me look at your scars I'll quickly hook you up to the ECG machine and then once I've done the brain scan you'll be free to go."

"Thank god."

"As far as I can tell you are a healthy 23 year old, although you are fairly underweight. How much do you eat?"

Lucy shrugged, "I dunno, enough to stop me feeling hungry? I've never been a big eater."

"In the same way you used to be clumsy?"

"Hmmm..."

Owen knew that it was always going to be an uncomfortable subject and could that some things were so deeply ingrained into the new member of the team to keep secret that she would never talk about them.

10 minutes later Lucy was finally free of Owen's clutches.

"Thank god for that." She sighed as he removed the screen.

"Well piss off then" Owen said as he started to get on with work.

"No need to tell me twice." She replied jumping down off the bed and going up the stairs as quickly as possible.

She reached the sofa in the main area and flopped down on it. "Tired?" Jack asked her looking down at her from his office before walking down to join her.

"You try being taken from your universe and then being thrown to Owen." She replied briefly shutting her eyes, "It's more tiring than you might think."

"I'll take your word for it." He laughed, "I've told Ianto he can finish in an hour, once the tourist office hours are over. You can go back with him then and I'll give you some money to get clothes."

"Thanks" She smiled at the fictional character standing in front of her.

"I'll get Tosh to get you a laptop so you can have a look at the news and such things to see if you can find any major differences between your world and ours. And I'll go looking for a safe for you to put those DVDs of yours in."

"Thank you Captain" Lucy said seriously, "I have no idea how this is going to work but thank you for letting me try."

"It's a challenge, and I'm not one to back down from challenges"

"I know." She said wryly.

"Yeah I guess you do."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: So there it is. Lucy has joined the Torchwood team. Just to let you know I've moved a few episodes around and worked out my own calendar of when things are happening.**

**Please feel free to ask me questions in your review and I'll do my best to reply to them, if I don't reply it's because it's a spoiler for the future.**

**I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and I'll see you again next week for the first part of 'Everything Changes'.**

**Don't forget to REVIEW!  
Rea**


	2. Chapter 2 - Everything Changes Part 1

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 1st September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"The police have found another body" Suzie called from her workstation, Lucy looked up from the paperwork she had been filling out. She was grateful to have something to do apart from the endless paperwork that both Ianto and Jack insisted on but was also aware that this was the beginning of her knowledge of this world and what was going to happen. Plus this was the 3rd body in 10 days so Suzie was obviously getting more and more anxious to use the glove, which meant that at some point soon Gwen Cooper with be joining the team, Lucy still wasn't sure what she thought at that. Jack walked out of his office pulling his coat on.

"Ok team let's go. Lucy you finish that paperwork?"

"Yeah." She said as she grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair in the hope that she would finally be allowed into the field for anything more than a standard weevil hunt.

"Good, you can come with us" he called over to Ianto, "We'll be back in an hour or so, can you get the stuff I need for my UNIT call ready? And make sure the police know we're on the way, I don't want to have to explain things again."

"No problem sir, UNIT files and coffee will be waiting for you when you get back. I'll call the police as soon as you leave"

"You're brilliant"

"Just doing my job sir."

They climbed into the SUV, Owen and Tosh discussing some new medical research that had been discovered, Suzie staying silent, Jack driving and Lucy just staring out of the window. She was daydreaming about the world she was in and the world and the people she had left behind and would almost certainly never see again.

She felt someone poke her and turned to see everyone looking at her.

"What?" Lucy asked confused, playing with the end of her plait as she felt self-conscious.

"Owen asked you a question." Tosh explained.

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in though. What was it?"

Owen was about to speak again but Jack pulled the SUV into an alley and as close to the crime scene as possible.

"OK guys, show time."

They walked in silence towards the barriers and the dead body lying on the ground as SOCO moved away from the scene. Lucy couldn't help but notice Gwen in her police uniform although she made no obvious sign that she knew what was happening, this was it. Cue opening titles, Torchwood had begun.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"There you go I can taste it. Oestrogen, definitely oestrogen" Jack said as Suzie got to work setting things up. "You take the pill, flush it away and it gets into the water cycle, feminises the fish. Goes all the way up into the sky and then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet."  
"Well it's one way of keeping the birth rates down I suppose" Lucy replied slightly sarcastically but also catching Jack's eye and then glancing up at Gwen who was watching them from the car park. Jack gave a small nod in reply, he'd spotted her as well.

"It means I won't get pregnant." He agreed "Never doing that again."

The rest of the Torchwood team looked at each other before deciding not to say anything, you could never tell with Captain Jack Harkness whether he was telling the truth or not, and most of the time it was better not to ask. Lucy shoved her free hand into the pouch on her hoodie in an attempt to get slightly warmer and for it to get less wet, staying dry was not an option.

"How's it going?" Jack asked Suzie

"Nothing yet. It's got to connect" The agent replied, "I've just got to feel it"

"Then hurry up and feel it." Owen complained "Freezing my arse off here." He and Tosh were busy filming it while Lucy was in charge of taking radiation readings. She was trying to hold the device in a way that meant her hand stayed in her pocket but after a disapproving look from Tosh about how she was handling the important instruments she rolled her eyes and held it properly, pointing the device at the dead body. Tosh gave her a small smile and then went back to looking at her own instrument.

"I can't just flick a switch." Suzie replied used to Owen's grumpy ways. "It's more like access. It grants me access."  
"Whatever that means."  
"Radiation levels rising." Lucy said suddenly as the glove lit up and Suzie took a breath.

"Positions" Jack ordered and they all knelt down next to the body.

"If I get punched again, I'm punching it right back." Owen warned them.

"Just concentrate" Jack said not really focussing on the doctor, "Suzie?"

Suzie moved the glove so it was resting underneath the head of the corpse, the rain around them stopped and the lights got brighter, Lucy was sure that Tosh noticed this and was busy making a mental note to look into it later due to the glint of a puzzle in the Japanese woman's eyes.

The body breathed.

"I was... I was... Oh my God. I was going home." He said.

"Listen to me." Tosh said calmly. "We've only got two minutes so it's important that you listen, ok?"  
"Who are you?"

"Trust me." Tosh stayed calm, before dropping the metaphorical bomb on the guy, who was about Lucy's age. "You're dead."

"How am I dead?"

"You were stabbed" Owen was the one supplied the information when Tosh seemed unsure if she should tell him or not.

"What do you mean I'm dead, I can't be dead. I'm talking to you."

"We've brought you back, but we haven't got long." Tosh tried to keep the man on topic "I'm sorry but you've got to concentrate. Who did this to you? What did you see?"

"Why am I dead?"

"Who attacked you?" Tosh insisted but Lucy knew they weren't going to get any information out of him, she could see it in the panic in his eyes and the memories in her head of Jack asking him something stupid, so she knelt down next to Tosh and spoke.

"What's your name?"  
"John Tucker." The man replied "Who are you, why am I dead?"

"I'm Lucy, and the man in the great coat staring down at us is Captain Jack Harkness - he's an expert at this kind of thing." Lucy knew that Gwen had to hear Jack's name. "And I'm really sorry John but I don't know why you're dead. But this is important; you have no idea who killed you, do you?"  
"I heard a noise behind me." The man replied before realising what Lucy had said "What do you mean he's an expert?"  
"What do I ask?" Tosh hissed at Jack, "he doesn't know."

"Shhh" Jack replied. "Lucy's handling it brilliantly."

"You got any family?" Lucy asked, trying to keep John as calm as possible.

"Course I have" John replied with a slight scoff before turning serious "I got me Da and a younger brother - Timmy"

"60 seconds" Suzie said but Lucy ignored her focussing on the not-dead body of John Tucker

"How old is Timmy?"

"He's 9. Am I ever going to see him again?"

"I don't think so, sorry John. I've got a sister, she's 7 and I'm not going to see her again either."  
"Are you dead?" He asked, more curious than scared. Lucy smiled sadly at him and shook her head.

"Just slightly lost."  
"What happens now?"

"I don't know." Lucy replied honestly, "what do you think happens?"  
"I dunno, it was dark and there was nothing. Oh my god there's nothing." He started panicking.

"Don't panic John" Lucy grabbed his hand, wishing there was some way they could save this guy

"I'm scared, I want to go home"  
"Me too. But neither of us are going to be able to so you've got to be strong for Timmy and I'll be strong for my sister, ok?"

John gave a small nod.

"10 seconds"

"Tell Tim he can have my comics." John said, he was still scared but pretending not to be.

"No problem." Lucy replied as the light from the Glove faded, and the rain started again. Suzie lowered John's head.

"I said it was stupid telling him he was dead." Owen commented as Lucy removed her hand from the dead body and went back to looking that the radiation reading.

"Well, you try it." Tosh replied as she stood up.  
"Like that's going to work. Lucy can do it next time, she's obviously good at it."  
"Well you guys were being stupid, he blatantly didn't know anything about his murder and if I'd left it up to you guys you only would have scared and panicked him more."  
"Well I'll agree that Lucy is now our resident ghost whisperer" Jack said with a shrug, "But maybe there is just not a right way to do it." He looked up at Gwen and shouted up at her, "What do you think?"

Gwen's head immediately disappeared and Owen cursed. "Has she been there the whole time?"  
"Yeah" Jack said.

"She was on the ground when we got here." Lucy added, "So obviously, she's just being nosey and wanted to see well beyond her pay grade"

"Clever way of doing it though." Jack mused, "I want see what else she'll do, but I'll make sure that Ianto has the Retcon ready for whenever we need it. Ok let's tidy this lot and get back to the hub so Suzie can continue her research and the rest of us can get dry."  
"You think I'm going to stay in these wet clothes?" Suzie argued jokingly

"I think you want to have a look at all the data we collected and see if you can find out more about what happened more than you want to get changed." Jack countered.  
"I want to know more about why it stopped raining." Tosh added.

"It hasn't" Owen complained, "I'm drenched."  
"Yes you are now." Tosh agreed as they walked towards the car and let SOCO back on their crime scene, "But while we were using the glove it stopped raining."  
"Did it darling? I didn't notice, I was focusing more on the fact I was already soaked and not being punched by a dead guy."

"Ok, ok, break it up guys." Their boss laughed, "When we get back to the hub we can get dry and then continue with the rest of the work that we left. Owen, I'd quite like the results of the autopsy you promised me, Tosh keep working on that translator, Suzie see what you can find out from the glove, and Lucy..." He looked at her though the mirror, "what are you currently working on?"  
"Mainly all the paperwork you gave me." she sighed, "But I've done that now. I wanted to look at the range of weapons we've got, and see what's in the archive. Ianto said he'd try and pull some different files on alien weapons for me and I wouldn't mind spending some more time in the shooting range."

"Gun's aren't always the way out of things." Jack said seriously and Lucy knew he was thinking of a certain Doctor.  
"I know, but it would be useful to have actual proper files about different weapons we've seen in the past and if different races use them; a proper database instead of relying on Ianto seeing if can find stuff in the mess that we jokingly call the archives"

"You just want the title weapons specialist." Owen scoffed and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Of course I do. You're the doctor, Tosh is the tech, Suzie deals with bits of everything but is mainly the field specialist plus she's she second in command and she has the glove, Ianto gets us everything we need, makes great coffee and deals with the mess that is the archive and Jack is in charge. I'd like to have my own area of expertise."  
"You've got our futures."

"_Random_ bits of your future." She countered "and things that may change now I'm here and I could accidentally set different things in action. Plus it's not a great introduction is it? Lucy Smith, knows what's going to happen and can't do a damn thing about it."

"Ok" Jack said stopping the argument that he could he was about to happen, Owen was quite clear that he was not happy that Lucy was allowed to keep her knowledge of the future secret. "Lucy you spend some time practising in the range and then you can start working on those weapons files, but it's going to be up to you to go looking for them in the archive, Ianto only has so much time in the day that he can spare. Keep up working with the weapons and I'll give you the title of specialist, but it'll take a while before you get there. Owen stop riling up Lucy, just because she MIGHT know what happens to you tomorrow."

"Actually to be fair, I'm pretty sure you have a threesome tomorrow." Lucy commented, causing Tosh and Jack to burst into laughter and Owen to pull a proud face about what he was going to achieve. Suzie just stayed silent not looking very impressed with the team.

Jack eventually pulled into the Hub car park, the journey back had predominantly been Owen trying to find out more about his threesome and everyone else, apart from Suzie, teasing him. Lucy was quieter than Jack and Tosh, but couldn't help but be happy at how she had been accepted into this group of people who would all risk their live for each other. She had never had proper friends due to her home situation but it felt nice to have that relationship with someone, it was something she knew that she would never forget and if she did ever manage to return home would make a point of trying to seek out. Although she was pretty sure normal groups of friends don't also have the lives of the rest of the city resting on them or hidden family secrets, but she resolved to never go back to being completely lonely again.

"You ok?" Jack mouthed at her and Lucy smiled at him and nodded, this was going to be even more difficult now she knew what was happening and she was going to have to put up with Gwen but she would cope. If there was one thing Lucy was good at it was 'being fine'.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto was waiting for them as they walked into the hub, holding a tray full of coffee and had some files under his arm, as well as a pile of towels

"Thanks Ianto." Lucy smiled at him as she gratefully grabbed the towel and the warm mug, "It's cold and wet outside."

"Is it, I hadn't noticed?" He mocked, before looking at Jack as everyone else grabbed their respective mug and a towel, "How did it go?"  
"Lucy is now the ghost whisperer, but he knew nothing about his death. Oh and a WPC watched us, we'll need to keep an eye on her."

"What's her name?"

"No idea." Jack shrugged, "ok, you guys can all leave in an hour. now back to work." Lucy grinned at Ianto as he spoke sarcastically.

"So I'm looking for a curious WPC, well that narrows the field down and judging by Lucy's face she knows."  
"If you can't find her tonight, Lucy can tell you her name tomorrow morning."  
"Thanks for the challenge." He raised an eyebrow in exasperation before turning away and Lucy went down to the shooting range, determined to get better at using a gun. Now Gwen was in the picture, or nearly in the picture, she wasn't going to be the new girl and Lucy didn't want any bit of that stigma attached to her. Plus like Owen said Lucy wanted the bragging rights of being the weapons specialist. She wanted an area of her own like Ianto had the archives, Tosh had all the technical stuff, Owen had the medbay and Suzie had the glove and leadership in the field.

It was easy to lose track of time in the shooting range, her focus was simply on the weapon in her hand and the target at the other end of the room. She had decided to be completely comfortable with one gun before she moved onto the next and thought that the best place to start was the generic hand gun used by the police. Her aim continued to get better and stay consistent so she decided to get change the distance between her and the spot she was aiming for, the chances of whatever she was shooting at being the 10m she had been practising at was slim. Lucy took a couple of steps back and started all over again.

Although she wasn't as good as she would have liked at the longer distance it was easier to improve as she felt more comfortable with the gun in her hand. The weight was starting to feel natural at this point and she was used to the recoil which meant that she moved with each shot instead of against it.

There was a sound behind her and Lucy jumped, she had got so used to the echo of the shots that anything else seemed out of place.

"Getting pretty good at that" Jack said as Lucy lowered the gun and took the bullets out.

"I'm not bad." She replied, "what are you doing down here?"  
"Sending you home. Ianto's waiting for you."  
"Huh" Lucy shrugged checking her watch, "it's been nearly an hour and a half, I thought you said one hour."

"I did, Owen walked out on the hour, Tosh and Suzie pretty soon after, Ianto wanted to finish what he was doing and you looked happy enough down here. So I figured I'd let you practice some more. You really want that weapons specialist title don't you?"

"What about it? I don't want to train any newbie." Lucy said narrowing her eyes at Jack.  
"Are we likely to have another newbie?" He asked and she shrugged,

"You seemed quite impressed with that officer earlier."

"Well if we do it'll still be your job. You're the newest, sorry. But get yourself sufficient at three different distances with all of the basic weapons we've got and start working on that database with Ianto and the title's yours."  
Lucy mentally gave herself a deadline of three months to achieve that goal. "What do you mean by sufficient?"

"Don't know yet. 80% hit rate?"

"Deal" Lucy said quickly before he could change her mind, that was doable, not easy but doable. She was glad to have something to do instead of just being an extra pair of hands around the hub. Lucy had always worked better out of sight of others and with an aim in mind, she may not be completely out of sight in a team of 6 but less people would bother her down in the range even if her main desk was upstairs. She had got used to this being her world now, had almost got used to it, but it was starting to feel like home.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Why did it have to go to the bloody hospital?" Owen moaned as they all climbed back into the SUV after shoving the weevil in the boot.

"I have no idea" Jack replied, "I'm slightly more concerned with how it got to the top floor of the hospital with no one else noticing. And why that WPC was there as well."  
"Concussion" Lucy explained, "Hit her head in bar."  
"How do you know that?" Suzie asked.

"I only remember it because it's the beginning of series 1 and Andy moans just beforehand about CSI being bollocks and wanting to see CSI Cardiff."  
"Apart from it being odd that you know what happens, I agree with him. CSI Cardiff would be interesting..." Tosh mused.

"You're not the only one who thinks it's - JACK!"

Jack swerved so he wouldn't hit Gwen who was standing straight in their way. "She's going to follow us isn't she?"

"Yup." Lucy said with a slight sense of cheer and annoyance in her voice.

"So this is the first episode then?"" Jack aid changing the conversation.

"Yeah, started at the same time as the beginning of series three of Doctor Who. Although we've got about half a year before we catch up to that. Series 3 happens on Earth over four or five days, if that. Starts a couple of days before election day." Lucy said looking out of the window, thinking about how Saxon was already on earth and making plans.

"While that is completely useless, can we please focus more on the fact that there is a police car following us." Owen said looking out the back window

"Probably a good idea." Suzie and Tosh agreed.

"Ok, Ianto?" Jack said through his ear piece.

"I'm here, what do you need?" Ianto replied.

"Can you meet us at the plass? I'm going to drive the SUV up there so when our nosey officer follows us we'll all disappear on the lift."  
"No problem, I presume you want me to drive the SUV down to the car park."

"You read my mind."  
"I do my job." Ianto said. "I've found out all I need to know about WPC Gwen Cooper. I'll have it on your desk to read when you get back."  
"Brilliant. Thanks Ianto." He glanced at the rest of the team. "Ok when we walk out of this car we aren't going to talk, we're just going to look impressive and walk over to the lift. I want to see what she does."

They talked about nothing in particular as Jack drove the car through Cardiff city centre and down to the bay. As predicted Gwen was just behind them and they all heard her shout for Torchwood to stop, but they simply continued to walk away from her and onto the entrance stone. It was a bit of a tight fit but they were all safely out of sight.

"She does look stupid doesn't she" Owen commented as Gwen started looking around the water feature, trying to see how five people had simply disappeared.

After they watched Gwen get harassed by a parking officer to move her police car Jack allowed the stone to fall and the team lowered into the hub.

Jack started giving orders straight away. "Ianto keep an eye on her and police records, she's going to do all she can to find us. Humans with a puzzle are like dogs with a bone, Tosh can you make sure they don't know about the dead porter, make it look like a suicide or something."  
"No problem." Tosh replied as she sat down on her chair and turned on her computer, "I'll have someone say they saw him leave as well. "

"Brilliant, sometimes I worry that you're getting too good at hiding bodies. I wouldn't want to get on your bad side. Everyone else I've got nothing in particular that needs doing so get on with your own projects and all the normal paperwork. Oh and on that note Ianto what did you do with the weevil?"

"I put it in the cells, Owen's been talking about getting a pet weevil for a while thought he might want this one. It obviously likes doctors."

"Oh ha ha very funny." Owen replied sarcastically as he walked past the desks to his area "Although actually that's useful, thanks tea boy. She needs a name though..." Owen pretended to think before giving an evil grin, "I know who she reminds me of, my lovely mother - Janet."  
"Janet the weevil?" Tosh asked with a slight laugh

"Yeah, why not?"  
"Janet it is then." Jack agreed, "and for obvious reasons try not to get mauled when you go down there."

"I'll do my best." the doctor replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Lucy laughed at the banter between the group before sitting down at her own computer and glancing at Tosh's written instructions she hacked into Crimnet.

"You're getting better at that." Tosh commented looking over from her desk.  
"I think so" Lucy replied with a slight smile.

"I mean it still took you longer than needed, and you still need my cheat sheet." She smirked, "But you're definitely improving."

"I know." She couldn't help but be sarcastic in her response to the Asian woman. "One day I'll be able to hack into the police with no help in only a couple of minutes. And then you can throw me a party because I'll be all grown up." Tosh gave a small laugh,

"And then I'll get you hacking into the government properly. Honestly, you've been with Torchwood for two and a half months and it still takes you five minutes to get into the police servers. Technology is not your thing is it?"

"Nope." She sighed, "never has been really. I can cope with a phone and basic computer stuff. But it turns out hacking is above me."

"You'll get there." Tosh turned back to look at her screen, "One day." She added, "I might even buy you a cake."

"I can't wait" Lucy rolled her eyes but stayed focused on the screen, searching for any information about John Tucker. She needed to find a reason for knowing him and calling his family to express her sympathies and to pass on his message about giving his comics to his kid brother. It didn't take long until she found what she was looking for, John Tucker was a third year student at Cardiff University.

"What are you looking for?" Suzie asked and Lucy made notes of the relevant information before searching for his facebook, it was amazing how useful that site was for finding out about people.

"Information on John Tucker" Lucy replied not looking across as she continued to jot down anything useful. "I promised him I'd let his brother know he could keep him comics. But I can hardly turn up on the doorstep and say his animated dead body told me that can I?"

"It's not an animated dead body." Suzie complained, "He was alive for those two minutes"  
"Except he wasn't alive because he was using your life force, needed your help whatever." Lucy finally looked up, her and Suzie had had this argument a few times. She was all for locking the glove away but Suzie wanted to know more, and as Jack was interested he allowed the research to continue, albeit slower than Suzie was happy about. Lucy had been the only person that hadn't tried the glove, Owen refused to let her try on medical grounds citing that the danger involved for Lucy was too high. It relied on a connection between the user and the body and Lucy was from somewhere completely alien, too much could go wrong.

"We brought him back to life. I'm not saying it doesn't matter who he was, but we only went to the body for research."

"The point is Suzie that he was dead, we may have brought him back to life but some bastard killed him and we used his body and his death, and it matters because I held his hand as he died again."

"He was dead anyway he didn't die again. What does it matter if it helps us in learning more about how the glove works. Some people leave their bodies to science and they get used for research and this is so much more important."  
"If you're claiming we brought him back to life, then it's fully feasible to say he died again. It matters because it wasn't his choice. He had been stabbed in the back on his way back home, probably thinking about work or dinner or normal human things and he was stabbed. Whoever did that took his life, and hopefully the police will find out who it was and they'll be punished. But we used his death."  
"We tried to find out who killed him, he didn't know."  
"We still used something that wasn't ours Suzie, he was dead and we brought his soul back, or whatever. But however we did it and whatever he was, doesn't change the fact that he asked me to make sure his kid brother got his comics." Lucy sighed and took a deep breath before talking again. "I understand why we're going to disagree on this but all I can think about is his family. I've got no one in this world and I left only a few people in mine, I have no clue what they think has happened to me. He's got a younger brother whose world has just been destroyed, I just want to make sure that little boy has something of his brother to hold onto. I just... I know this isn't how Torchwood normally works, but I think this is something I need to do."

"Well stop preaching at us and get on with it then." Suzie said with a shrug. Lucy sighed and typed the number into her phone. She had no idea what she was going to say or how she was going to say it, but by the time she finished the conversation Tim would have his brother's old comic.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy felt emotionally exhausted when she got off the phone, it had taken a while to persuade John's father that she was a university friend, the information Tosh had found on John Tucker was invaluable. The dad had promised to pass the message on to Tim, and was grateful for the phone call and had even gone as far as inviting her to the funeral when it happened.  
It had turned dark while Lucy had been speaking to Mr Tucker, and she walked back to the main area of the hub to find the rest of the team looking at footage from a CCTV camera of Rould Dahl Plass, Gwen was standing around inspecting the stones.

"How long has she been there?"  
"About 10 minutes," Jack replied, "how did the phone call go?"  
"As well as it could" She shrugged, "I'm not totally sure he believed me but he was happy to speak to anyone about his son."

"Well, let's keep an eye on PC Gwen Cooper but get back to work. Lucy can you get started on the weapons database you've been talking about? Ianto has found you loads of forms and files in the archives for you to start with. He's put them on your desk"  
"No problem"

"Ianto, I know it looks fine but I want this hub spotless, just in case she does get in. It needs to look like the perfect underground alien hunting base." Ianto nodded "Suzie, keep working on the glove and the knife, Tosh if you could try and get that new translation software from UNIT that would be brilliant and Owen I need you to actually complete your paperwork."

They all got on with their assigned jobs with little moaning, everyone except Owen, but he moaned about everything anyway. The work might sometimes be tedious but Torchwood was one of the best jobs in the world.

Lucy looked at the stack of papers on her desk, some looking like they dated back to when Torchwood first started. She may have mentioned the idea last night but that didn't mean she had any idea where to start. Eventually she figured that the best thing to do would be to read through all of them and find any links between the different weapons. Lucy knew that Torchwood had a system for categorising weapons but it had become quite lax recently since just before the millennium and over the years lots of things got shoved in the wrong storage space due to ease and space available. So she decided to start from the oldest files - type them up so they had a soft copy, and writing them up again so they had a hard copy as well, just in case. That alone was going to take up most of her time in Torchwood - due to the size of the archives - but once she had everything put away neatly and in its proper place it would make everything a lot easier and it would become easy to maintain that standard. She could then get to work with grouping them and making it into a proper database, which would be the easier job once she knew what they were and how she wanted them organised.

Lucy turned the pile upside down so she was starting from the bottom. She plugged her headphones into her ipod and began to work.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**AN: Hope you enjoy this second chapter and the first time Lucy actually knows whats going on. I've discovered that most of my episodes are too long to go up in one update so I'm splitting them into two or three.**

**Thanks again to Jeremy who edited it for me and thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter or put Lucy onto your favourites/alert. It means a lot to know that you like it.**

**Keep smiling, keep reviewing, keep reading.**

**Rea**


	3. Chapter 3 - Everything Changes Part 2

Torchwood got on with their jobs, but they all kept an eye on the CCTV screen that was open on every computer - watching PC Gwen Cooper walk around, still trying to work out how 5 people had disappeared right in front of her.

When Gwen walked off, everyone apart from Lucy, thought she had finally given up. But fifteen minutes later and Gwen was walking back holding two Jubilee Pizza boxes she walked down the bay and towards the tourist office.

"Well at least I don't have to order out tonight, she's done the work for us." Ianto commented dryly. Jack thought for a bit before speaking.

"Ok this is what we're going to do. She's going to come in here and we're going to ignore her, pretend like she's not there and not important. Everyone at your desk and get on with something. If she wants to talk to us, she's going to have to be the one to start that conversation. Ianto, you go upstairs and let her in."

Lucy grinned and turned back to her work, quickly turning the CCTV screen off - there was no need for Gwen to know they had been watching her. Once Jack walked upstairs to check something and to think of something that would make his entrance more impressive, Lucy noticed Owen turn back to his crossword instead of the half finished paperwork.

It didn't take long for Gwen to walk into the hub and join them, Lucy kept her back to her and tried not to look at Owen or Tosh as she knew that she would only need to catch their eyes and she would laugh. It didn't matter anyway because as Jack walked past she heard Owen stifle a laugh, Tosh couldn't help it she started laughing and Lucy grinned and laughed as well.

Owen pushed his chair out from his desk, laughing.

"I can't do this. I'm sorry. I'm rubbish. I give up."

"He set me off" Tosh accused pointing at Owen,

"I only broke after they did" Lucy added defensively.

"Well that lasted about 0.2 seconds" Suzie joked as she put down the blowtorch and lifted the mask.

"Hmm... she actually carrying pizza" Owen commented, Lucy got up from her desk and took the pizza's off Gwen.

"I'll take them." She opened the boxes and pulled out a slice from the bottom, "It's our normal just on two pizzas. Half and half. Mine's shared with you Owen. Doesn't look like Jack has any or Ianto. Suzie and Tosh you've got the other" Lucy said putting the other box on the workstation.

"Pass it over when you're finished." Owen replied "may be less than normal, but it's still food." Jack got up from his desk and walked over to join them.

"Come on. She was gonna say _'Here's your pizza,'_ and I was gonna say _'how much?_' and she says _'oh whatever 20 quid'_ and I say _'oh I don't have any money'_" he frowned. "I was working on a punch line. It was going to be good."

"Well now you've got your pizza I think I had better go." Gwen said, scared about what she had walked into and who all these people were.

"I think we've gone past that stage" Jack said simply, letting her know that they were not going to let her just walk out of the door.

"You must be freezing" Suzie said as she walked across the hub to join them and get her pizza, "How long were you walking round? 3 hours?"

"You could see me?"Gwen asked shocked

Suzie just nodded and opened the other pizza box

"And before we go any further," Jack said, speaking to the team, "who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Owen raised his hand, looking slightly sheepish but unrepentant.

"Uh, yeah, that would be me. Sorry I'm a twat."

"That man at the hospital." Gwen said, finally starting to ask questions, "That porter. What happened to him? That was real wasn't it? He was attacked."

"He's dead." Jack replied bluntly.

"But there's no one gone missing."

"We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next 48 hours so when his body is pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night he's only been missing three days" Tosh explained.

"He was murdered."

"Yeah."

"And you covered it up?"

"It's my job" Tosh shrugged. Gwen looked at all of them, trying to work out what Torchwood was and what role each of them played.

"And that other man, John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you."

"What did you see?" Jack asked walking towards the police officer.

"You revived him."

"No." Jack said plainly, Gwen had to reach the conclusion all on her own and say it aloud. "What did you see?"

"You resuscitated him" She tried, but looked away from Jack.

"No. What did you _see_?"

"You brought him back to life." Gwen said with slight accusation in her voice.

"Yeah." Jack nodded, glad that she wasn't running for the hills or spouting at the impossibility of it.

"Who are you?"

"Torchwood." Jack replied simply.

"What's Torchwood?"

"This is Torchwood, all around you." he gestured at the rest of the team.

"And what happens to me? I'm police, Constable Gwen Cooper. You can't do anything." She sounded nervous and Jack thought for a bit before speaking.

"Right then, PC Cooper. Do you want to come see?"

"See what?"

"You saw the murder, now come see the murderer" He started to walk further into the hub, not waiting for Gwen to follow. Gwen was unsure what to do next but after a small prompt from Suzie she followed.

"What is Torchwood?" Gwen asked as she caught up with Jack "Who are you, what is this place?" There was a screech from above as Myfwany flew in. "What was **that**?" she shouted

"Pterodactyl." Lucy replied starting to finish off her work for the night as well as another slice of pizza.

Gwen and Jack walked out of sight and the rest of the team started finishing for the day.

"What do you think then?" Tosh asked

"About Cooper?" Owen replied spinning round on his chair, "she's nice enough on the eyes I suppose. Suzie? Lucy?"

"Well she didn't run away screaming?" Suzie said with a shrug

"She paid for pizza," Lucy added "even if we normally order more."

"Yeah, what's with that?"

"Her pay check is nowhere near as big as ours." Tosh pointed out, "we can afford to buy that much and it's on a rota when Ianto's not getting it on the Torchwood bill. It would be a fairly big chunk of her low wage pay."

"So do you know anything interesting about her then Lucy?" Owen asked. Lucy just shrugged and changed the topic.

"Anyone know if there is anything good on TV tonight?"

"I don't care." Owen replied, "I've got my threesome remember? I mean I need to find these people but it should be a lot better than what's on TV"

"I really didn't want that image in my head" Lucy shuddered and Tosh agreed.

"I'm watching an interesting program about the history of the computer chip." Tosh said and Lucy pretended to think about it.

"Forgive me Tosh, but while that sounds _fascinating, _I think I'll pass."

"Because it sounds deathly dull" Owen contradicted her.

"Owen, not only are you keeping a weevil in the cells s you can learn more about them, you named it Janet after your mum." Lucy said sarcastically, "Your idea of dull is very very different to mine."

"No, it's fine." Tosh said, "I know it's not everyone's thing..."

"But it is yours and we love you for it." Lucy said, "Might just go to a DVD rental place. I've watched all the stuff at Ianto's now."

"Did I hear my name?" Ianto said as he walked down and started to tidy up around them.

"Just saying I've watched all of your DVDs." She shrugged, "What do you want done with these files, back into the archives or does my locked cupboard work just as well?"

"As long as they are locked up, I don't mind." Ianto replied, "Makes it easier for me if I don't have to put them away and then find them again tomorrow morning."

Jack and Gwen walked back up and the conversation stopped.

"Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper" The Captain said introducing them.

"_Dr_ Owen Harper, thank you." Owen corrected him.

"Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello, she's second in command. Lucy Smith, working on becoming our weapons expert." Lucy smiled and locked the files into the cupboard. "And Ianto Jones, Ianto tidies up after us and gets us everywhere on time"

"I try my best"

"And he also looks good in a suit."

"Careful," Ianto said with only the vaguest tones of amusement in his voice "that's harassment, sir."

"But why are you telling me their names?" Gwen asked "I'm not supposed to know am I? This is classified isn't it?"

"Oh way beyond classified." Jack agreed.

"Then you shouldn't be telling me. What are you going to do to me?"

"What do you imagine?" Jack replied allowing her imagination to take over and come up with things much worse than what they were going to do.

"Well I've seen too much, your names and everything, and the Weevil and..." she looked at Tosh. "You can dump a man in the water and lie about his death."

Jack grabbed his long coat and walked out of his office, giving orders. Everyone took this as their signal to grab their coats and go home as well.

"Ok, Tosh, finish that calibration in the morning. Owen, first thing get a hold of Chandler and Bell, 'cause I think they're lying. Ianto, if he needs backup, then you'd better be on standby. Lucy, tomorrow morning I want a plan of what you're going to do with a rough estimate how long it's going to take if you do it full time and if you leave it as a side project. Suzie, I know it's a pain in the ass but I need the costing on the glove research." He pointed at Gwen, "And as for you, your coming with me. This way." Jack walked down to the paving slab and Gwen followed.

"I'm getting tired of following you around." She complained. Jack gave her his charming grin in reply.

"No you're not. And you never will"

Lucy waved at the pair as they rose on the paving block and then walked over to Ianto, saying goodnight to the rest of the team as they left.

"How long are you planning on staying?"

"Long enough to make sure Miss Cooper doesn't leave herself a reminder about Torchwood." Ianto replied.

"What if she just writes it down with pen and paper?" Lucy asked, she had always been curious.

"I did some research earlier, looked into her home computer, emails, facebook, that sort of thing. She's not the kind of person to write a diary from what I can tell but also she relies on the computer email alerts to remind her to do stuff. So the balance of probability says that she'll store it on the computer." Ianto replied and Lucy stared at him.

"That's kinda scary that you know that. Brilliant, but scary." The Welshman just laughed at her,

"It's my job - I clean up after them, remember?"

"It's more than cleaning up after them." Lucy argued " Anyway what I was going to ask was, do you want me to wait with dinner or not?" She asked, aware that her and Ianto were acting like a couple, but it was simply easier for them to live together instead of just living in the same house, besides they had become good friends and eating together is always better than eating alone.

"It'll probably be fairly late. You can take the car and I'll go via the chippy next to the taxi rank."

"Ok cool, just wanted to check. I'm planning an early night so I'll probably see you tomorrow morning. See ya Ianto"

"Bye Lucy." He said with a smile. "Enjoy the new book."

"I'd ask how you know," she laughed, "but I'm aware that you always know everything."

"It was delivered to the house this morning." Ianto replied, "I found out the usual way, with my eyes..."

"Ok, well like I said I'll see you tomorrow morning." With a smile and a wave she walked along the corridor and out into Cardiff Bay.

(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)

The next day at Torchwood was fairly slow, Lucy and Ianto got in early as normal as Ianto wanted to check up on Lisa and make sure she was ok as well as having everything prepared for when the rest of the team decided to get in.

Lucy spent the early morning in the practice range continually changing and improving on her shots. It was very repetitive work as she got to not only Torchwood standard, but continued to aim for higher, she wanted to be above that with a majority of weapons. There was no point being the weapons specialist if she wasn't one of the best with the weapons available. Lucy simply put her ipod on, under her ear protectors, listened to music and allowed herself to forget about anything else apart from the music, the gun in her hand and the target at the other end of the range. She was very proud of her ipod, this was primarily because it was going to be made in a couple of years which meant that she was ahead of the market and Tosh wanted to take it apart to examine it. Unfortunately it this also meant that she couldn't update any music on it because the itunes system wasn't advanced enough yet.

The rest of the day was normal Torchwood stuff, if that was at all possible. They all got on with their own individual projects talking and laughing with each other as they did so. Lucy was the only one, apart from Jack, who noticed that Suzie didn't seem herself - her temper was slightly shorter and she was worried about something.

it was only around 7pm, after everyone else left that things changed. Lucy had decided to work late, she was starting to get into her stride with the setting up of the new weapons database and had nearly finished working out the different categories she was going to place them under, and decided to stay late so she could get it done as well as finish writing/typing up the first 20 files in the pile Ianto had given her. Once everyone had left Lucy brought up the CCTV of the city above her head, following Suzie as she walked around the bay seemingly working out what she was going to do, as well as following Gwen home from the Police Station and watching as she left the house again and headed in the direction of the Bay.

She wasn't sure when she should involve Jack in this, as he often had the CCTV in the surrounding area up on his computer screen at night but she was also aware that she couldn't take the risk of him not knowing. Lucy got up from her desk and walked over to Jack's office, knocking on the door before letting herself in.

"Lucy" Jack grinned at her, "what can I do for you? Letting me know that you're going home in case I want to follow?"

"Not quite Captain." Lucy said with a small grin, "That edges a bit _too_ close to harassment."

"You've been living with Ianto too long." He laughed before turning serious, "So what's up?"

"Just thought you might want to know that Gwen Cooper is on her way down to the bay, and Suzie's been hanging around, mainly staying in the shadows but still hanging around."

"There's nothing wrong with her staying in the bay, what she does in her spare time isn't my problem. But thanks for letting me know about Cooper."

"Just..." Lucy was trying to work out the best way to phrase it, "You might want to keep the CCTV on the water tower, it can't be a good sign. I know you noticed the way Suzie was acting today... I'm just a bit..." She struggled for the right word, "concerned?"

"Are you telling me that something could happen between those two?" Jack asked leaning forward suddenly interested. Lucy sighed as she tried to work out what to say.

"I know more about Gwen Cooper than I do about Suzie Costello, that's all I'm saying."

Jack nodded and brought up the CCTV like Lucy suggested. Gwen had parked her car and walked into the main plass by the tower, she was looking around and both Torchwood agents knew she was trying to find something to spark her memory of the night before.

Suzie stepped out from behind the tower and started to talk to Gwen.

"Only problem with CCTV." Jack joked "Can't hear anything." Once Suzie pulled out the gun he jumped up and raced across the hub to the paving slab that doubled as their outside lift. "that's my cue."

"What do you want me to do?" Lucy asked as he rose up through the levels.

"Keep watching the cameras." Jack replied.

Lucy watched on the cameras, she knew that Jack was there listening to Suzie admit to killing all those people because she wanted to use the glove but seeing his dead body drop into sight was odd. She quickly noted the time so she would know what to cut out of the CCTV recordings - or rather more accurately so Jack would be able to cut it out. There was no way that Lucy was going to be to hack the footage, delete that bit and make it look clean.

She watched as Jack came back to life and as Suzie shot herself through the head, making a mental note to find that book that released the hub from Suzie's back up plan.

Her phone went off, it was Jack calling.

"Lucy," Jack said the second she picked up "I hate to have to ask you to do this for one of your colleagues but can you get a body bag and the SUV? I'd deal with her myself but I don't want to have to leave PC Cooper alone."

"No problem Jack." She replied glad that she had eventually got the money needed to learn how to drive in her home universe. "I'll be 5 minutes max."

"Thanks." He said and she could hear the relief and the disappointment in his voice.

Lucy walked through the hub towards the car park, and grabbed one of the body bags from the storage room - it was always a bad sign in any company that they kept body bags and that everyone knew where they were stored. But in a group like Torchwood, not having body bags would have been a grievous oversight, they would never be able to protect everyone.

Forcing herself to stop thinking morbid thoughts, Lucy quickly drove from the car park onto the plass where Jack was giving Gwen a hug as she accepted what had happened to her.

"Thanks Lucy" Jack said as she jumped out of the car, she couldn't see Suzie's body and Jack explained that as well, "I put her on the lift, thought it best to keep her out of sight."

"Probably a good idea," she gestured towards Gwen, "how do you want me to help with PC Cooper?" Gwen moved out of Jack's hug and just listened to the conversation as she tried to get over the shock of not only defeating the Retcon but also watching Suzie shoot herself right through the head in front of her.

"I'm going to call the others, and then put Suzie's body in the mortuary. We need a team meeting first thing tomorrow morning. But first tell me honestly have you or Ianto got any artefacts at your flat?"

"None that I know of." Lucy replied, honestly, "I definitely don't and I can't imagine that Ianto does either."

"I didn't think any of you guys would." Jack sighed, "But Suzie took the glove home and experimented. I'll check with the others as well." Lucy made a point to not make eye contact with Jack, knowing that both Tosh and Owen had something. Unfortunately the Captain noticed this and sighed. "Great, this wasn't how I had planned my evening. Ok, Lucy can you take Gwen home - she's not safe to drive right now. I know you and Ianto are normally the first in but make sure you are both in by 9am. We'll have the team meeting then, once I know what to say." Lucy nodded.

"Am I allowed to tell Ianto what the meeting is about?" She asked, Jack just nodded tiredly looking his age - at least 100 years old. "It wasn't your fault Jack." She said trying to reassure him.

"I introduced her to Torchwood, I let her research on the glove and then she murdered three people. How is it not my fault?"

"Because we have free will. " Lucy replied, "She chose to accept your offer of a job, she pushed to be allowed to research and learn more about the glove and because _she_ was the one who got obsessed with it."

Jack decided not to reply to what Lucy said, she didn't expect him to but she hoped that he thought about it and eventually accepted it. Instead he spoke to Gwen.

"Turn up tomorrow morning at 9:30 once I've had a chance to talk to the rest of the team, we need to talk."

"Yeah." Gwen agreed.

"Come on." Lucy said to Gwen, "Let's get you home to your boyfriend."

It didn't take long to take Gwen home, Lucy managed to get a taxi pretty quickly and went back to her flat. She was exhausted and ready to go to bed the second she let herself through the door.

Ianto was on the sofa watching the news.

"I thought you'd be back earlier." He said as she let herself in, Lucy just sighed and he looked up and immediately noticed that something must have happened due to the look on her face. "What happened?" He asked as he muted the TV.

"Where should I start?" She replied as she made her way over and sagged into the sofa.

"From the beginning."

"Well we've got a team meeting at 9am tomorrow, it turns out Suzie was the one behind those murders, she blew her own brains out in front of Gwen who was already close to defeating the Retcon - she remembers everything now."

"Suzie did what?"

"Gave herself completely to the glove, it worked better with fresh and traumatic deaths. So that's what she did."

"Bloody hell."

"Exactly." Lucy agreed. "Jack got there in time to stop her killing Gwen so she killed herself instead. I was watching on the CCTV."

"Are you ok?"

"I wasn't nearly shot and my brains are still in my head." Lucy replied sarcastically

"You know what I mean."

"I'm fine. I need a bit more food and then a lot of sleep." She said with a smile, "Kinda ruined my plans for tonight."

"We'll get a DVD another night." Ianto said with a shrug. "So is the meeting tomorrow about Suzie then?"

"Yeah" Lucy pushed herself up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen to grab some cereal, Ianto followed her. "Plus Jack wants to check that the others haven't taken an alien artefact home - I said that we hadn't so if you have please hand it back in and let Jack know that I didn't know, I don't want him to think me a liar."

"I've not going anything." Ianto said with a small smile, "Don't want to get any attention because of Lisa."

"Well that's ok then. Not about Lisa just that I didn't lie. Sorry." She apologised realising how what she said could have sounded, "I'm not thinking straight." she was busy moving around the kitchen getting everything she needed.

"It's fine I knew what you meant."

"Yeah so the meeting is about what happened along with how to act with alien artefacts. It's probably also about Gwen joining the team - he's invited her as well although she's turning up half an hour after us." Lucy poured the milk over her rice crispies and started to eat.

"Hmm..." Ianto thought, "It will keep his attention off me with a new member."

"Yeah, although he hinted towards it being my job to get her up to scratch"

"It probably is, you're the most recent, only joining 2 and a half months ago."

"Great." Lucy wasn't impressed but went back to her food "That will be fun."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Ianto and Lucy were the only one apart from Jack to know what the meeting was about, although before it started Jack took the alien artefacts off Tosh and Owen and gave them a look of disappointment.

"Where's Suzie?" Owen asked as they sat down to talk "She's not normally late."

"That's what the meetings about." Jack said seriously as he sat down.

"So it's not just you bollocking us about taking stuff home? Because oh no I took something that allowed me to get sex and Tosh took something that put a book onto a computer." Owen moaned sarcastically.

"No" Jack sighed, "It's not about that, you won't be doing it again though - no matter how innocent the artefact is. Suzie took something home with her as well, the glove. She gave her mind to the glove and the knife and because she wanted more bodies to experiment one she killed for them. The last three bodies that we went to - the ones that were all stabbed in the back by a single knife - they were all Suzie."

"No..." Tosh breathed

"I don't believe it." Owen said.

"Well you'd better believe it, because she did. Last night, Gwen came back. She had been fighting against the Retcon and remembered something about the plass and the water tower and the police had a drawing of what the knife looked liked. As she was fighting against the Retcon and knew what the knife looked like, she was the only person capable of making the link between Suzie and the deaths. Suzie decided that the only thing she could do was to shoot Gwen and go on the run with both the knife and the glove."

"Shit." Owen muttered and Tosh had gone completely pale, Lucy and Ianto stayed silent as they already knew what Jack was saying and had had time to take in the information.

"Luckily Lucy spotted Suzie hanging around the bay and Gwen turning up on the CCTV so I was able to get there to stop her killing Gwen. However Suzie turned the gun on herself instead and killed herself. There was nothing that I could do to stop her."

Jack allowed them time to take in the information about their colleague and friend before dropping the next bombshell.

"I'm offering Gwen Cooper a job."

"What?" Owen spluttered, "why?"

"Because she's got skills we can use and because she's broken through the Retcon. It's not a subject up for discussion, she'll be here in about 15 minutes"

"So you call us in for a meeting to tell us that our friend not only killed herself but killed others as well. And on top of that you've found a replacement."

"I know it's not easy." Jack tried, "but the job doesn't stop."

"No" Owen agreed "it's not easy but that doesn't change the fact that she was our friend and you're acting like it's ok that she's gone because you've got us a new toy to play with."

"You know that's not what I mean" Jack said standing up and leaning over the desk to look at them, "You've got till Gwen comes in for her first day of work to sort yourself out. It's not her fault that Suzie did those things." He looked at all of them before walking out of the conference room to leave them to their thoughts.

"Shit" Owen said kicking the chair next to him over.

"That about sums it up" Lucy agreed with a sigh.

"You knew this was going to happen." Owen said turning on Lucy, "You must have done and you said a couple of days ago that it was episode 1."

"I tried to stop it, I got Jack to get Suzie to slow down on her research but I couldn't do anything else!" Lucy replied knowing that Owen was accusing her of not doing enough. "It's a damn good thing I was watching the CCTV otherwise Suzie would have shot Gwen and gone on the run."

"So we're supposed to be grateful?"

"I never said that." She could feel her temper rising and tried to shove it back down.

"Stop it you two." Tosh said cutting across this argument, "it's not helping anyone. The more important thing is what we're going to do now."

"What do you mean?" Owen asked, as both he and Lucy calmed down.

"Well what are we going to tell Gwen about Jack?"

"What _do_ we know about Jack?" Ianto asked sarcastically before Owen could say anything.

"Well we know he can't die." Tosh pointed out, "His records in Torchwood go back to the early 1900s. He went AWOL during WWII..."

"Ok so we all get your point. What do you mean?" Owen asked tiredly

"Well do we tell her? Does she know? Lucy?"

"Suzie shot Jack first." Lucy replied with a sigh as she played with the end of her plait, "While he was still on the lift." she added after a small pause

"Shit."

"Yeah, it was odd to watch on the CCTV."

"So do we let her know that we know or not? I mean Jack's never told us." Tosh continued.

"We keep it secret." Owen said coming to a decision, "We keep the little we know about Jack secret and at the first opportunity we ask her what she's found out; see if she spills anything. But we don't let her know that we know about Jack's immortality until absolutely necessary. She doesn't need to know that we know."

"Agreed." Ianto said and they all looked at him in shock, "what?" He asked, "I agree with Owen sometimes."

"Not very often though tea-boy." Owen joked,

"Are we done?" Lucy asked standing up, "I want to go shoot something."

"I might join you." Owen said standing up as well. "Seems the best way to get over what Suzie did and how Jack told us."

"Anyone else going to join us?" Lucy looked at Ianto and Tosh.

"It sounds very tempting. But I have work to do." Tosh mused and Ianto nodded, shooting something was always a good way to get rid of excess energy.

"Well come down and join me whenever you feel like it." Lucy said with a smile, "at some point we should do a team trip to laser quest or paintballing. Shooting moving thinking targets without actually hurting each other."

"It's a bit childish don't you think." Tosh commented with a small smile.

"Could be a laugh though." Owen agreed, "No matter how childlike it is. And we'd all get a chance to shoot Jack, although we could do that anyway."

"He still dies though." Tosh pointed out.

"I suppose." He shrugged, "I'll bring it up with him at some point. But for now I'm going to use real bullets and fake targets."

"Let's go shoot stuff." Lucy agreed, "See you two later"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Well that's it, I've completed the first episode, Lucy now knows what's going on and Gwen is part of the team.**

**A massive thank you to the people who reviewed the previous chapter, put Lucy on alert or on your favourite list. Or even just took the time to read. It means a lot.**

**Next week is Day 1, which is split into three parts, each of them roughly the length of this one. **

**Thanks again to Jeremy who beta'd it for me but doesn't want to know the ending until I write everything else, just so he can check continuity.**

**Rea**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Day 1, part 1

**Enjoy the first part of Day 1**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 4th September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

Lucy was not happy, she had been cooking dinner when she received a text from Jack 'Just a reminder that you're teaching Gwen the ropes, she starts tomorrow.' She had tried calling Jack to complain but he wasn't hearing any of it, claiming it was her responsibility because she was the newest and then hung up. So Lucy turned to Ianto to complain to him about it, Ianto very quickly tuned her out knowing that there was nothing that could be done and Lucy just needed to complain before getting on with it.  
Just as she was getting into her stride, there was a rumbling sound from outside. The two Torchwood agents both immediately stopped what they were doing and looked out the window; there was something flying through the sky on fire, leaving a massive gas cloud behind it, from what they could see, hear, and feel when it hit the ground; it landed quite close to them. They both looked at each other and sighed, any plans for a relatively quiet night in went out the window and both mobiles went off. Lucy picked it up, knowing what it was going to say and was not wrong. 'Torchwood.'  
It was time to go into work, she put her pasta and sauce into a thermos so she would have something to eat – it was going to be a long night and she didn't know when there would be time for Ianto to order food. While she was getting ready to go into the field and see what had happened, Ianto was searching for anything on his phone while changing back into his work suit, ready to go back to the hub and have everything the rest of the team needed when they returned.

Ianto's flat was only a five minute walk from the hub, which normally was not a long distance, but in times like this where speed was of the essence, Jack or Owen had agreed to pick her up from the flat providing it was in the right SUV was outside the flat in about a minute and Jack raised an eyebrow at Lucy holding a thermos flask.  
"It's going to be a long night and I'm hungry. I'm not going to take it into the field, I'll leave it in the car and eat it when we get to the hub." She shrugged, as she got in. "Jack do I really have to mentor Cooper? I mean surely someone else would be better. You know someone who doesn't already kinda hate her."  
"You're the newest" Owen said, "I had to do it for Tosh, and Suzie did it for me."  
"The only reason Tosh didn't do it for you was because you already had a working knowledge and you're a special case. That's why I took over. Besides you don't know Gwen, you just know how they showed her on TV in very specific situations." Jack added, "Get over it, it's happening."  
They pulled up and picked up Tosh.  
"Hiya Tosh." Lucy smiled, "How much has this alien invasion ruined your evening plans then? Cause Owen would have just gone out drinking so really he should thank it. Or at least his liver should."  
"Oi!" Owen said and Jack laughed. Tosh just shrugged.  
"I was just going to work on updating the translation software. Nothing much."  
"Gwen's just on the side there." Jack said.  
"I know I've spotted her." Owen replied as he pulled up.  
"You could just drive away." Lucy tried, Jack turned round and faced her.  
"Enough Lucy. She's your co-worker, even though for now she's reporting to you. I don't care that you don't like her in the show. Live with it."  
"Sorry Jack." Lucy said hanging her head, she knew that she had pushed it for too long and Jack wasn't happy or impressed, they stopped and Gwen got in.

"You'll want to sit in the middle." Lucy said to Gwen, "That way Tosh and I can use the computer screens." Gwen nodded and climbed over the younger girl into the middle, Tosh gave a small laugh.  
"You're not brilliant at using them at the best of times anyway." As soon as Gwen was seated and the door was shut Owen started driving again.  
"Yes well... I'll be better than Gwen. For now anyway. Gwen for the record - technology really isn't my thing."  
"That's an understatement." Owen smirked in the rear view mirror.  
"Can we focus on the meteorite and not my failings with anything higher than basic computers please?" Lucy asked  
"Good idea." Jack agreed, turning round to face them better, "It's a simple locate-and-clean-up operation. Find that meteorite before anyone else gets their hands on it. Good to see you by the way."  
The computer screens came down and Tosh immediately started getting to work trying to find the landing site while Lucy went online to the forums to look at the theories and first hand reports hoping to find where it had first been seen.  
"You got enough kit?" Gwen asked sarcastically  
"Tosh have you got it yet?" Owen asked as he drove  
"Basic surveillance." Tosh shrugged answering Gwen's question while she tried to find to the answer to Owen's "With this, we can tap into CCTV networks and databases..."  
"See it's a lot more complex than using a computer." Lucy added, "my technological failings don't look quite as bad now." Gwen didn't reply to Lucy she was too busy looking at one of the screens.  
"Is this CRIMINT?" She asked before looking at them who nodded and shrugged, "This is the police computer system. You shouldn't have this." She accused.  
"Might want to stop saying 'you' and start saying 'we'" Jack said from the front.  
"Got it." Tosh said suddenly, "I'm patching it through to the SatNav now."  
"Brilliant." Owen glanced at the screen and turned a corner, "We'll be there in 15 minutes."  
"Lucy, what are you up to and how's it going?" Jack asked  
"Trying to use the internet to see if I can find out where this thing was first spotted." Lucy replied "I figure when we've got time we can use this information and find out which area of space it started from."  
"Good idea, any progress?"  
"Nothing right now. The forums are fairly active as you would imagine. It went north-east to west across Cardiff from what I can tell though. It'll be more comprehensive later once the forums have died down a bit."  
They drove in silence for just under 15 minutes when Tosh said.

"Crash site is 100meters ahead, turn left." Owen did so and the headlights lit up the army in front of them.  
"Shit." he said as he braked. "The amateurs got here first."  
The Army had cut off the area and soldiers were climbing out of vans holding different pieces of kit as others kept a couple of police cars back. They all climbed out of the SUV and Lucy handed Gwen a box with some kit in.  
"Wouldn't want you to leave it in the SUV and get left behind." She joked.  
"Thanks." Gwen replied, "I'm a bit out of my depth."  
"You'll be fine. We all were nervous on our first time out." Lucy said with a smile, "Plus it looks bad on me if I get you lost within half an hour of your first shift starting. Jack really wouldn't be happy with me."  
"Alright" Jack said as they started to walk towards the barrier, forcing the police to move out of their way. "Usual formation."  
"What the usual formation?" Gwen asked  
"Varies" Owen said with a shrug  
"How can a usual formation vary?"  
"It's any way that makes us look impressive and that makes them do what we want them to do. It varies because we have different kit at different times." Lucy replied, "At least that's what I've guessed these past two months. Jack refuses to confirm my suspicions, but this is Jack we're talking about."

The soldiers didn't look very happy as they let them through and this made Gwen feel even more out of place as the rest of Torchwood just ignored it. The army never liked Torchwood and much preferred UNIT but that was because they were able to understand how UNIT was run and the chain of command, plus it was also easy to tell who was UNIT and who wasn't due to the uniforms.  
"Let's see what we came for." Jack said pulling Lucy out of her thoughts and directing them instead to the meteorite.  
As much as she would love to make sure that Gwen didn't throw the tool and hit it she was also aware of how important this incident is. Without the 'sink-or-swim' first day Gwen would have struggled in Torchwood - would struggle in Torchwood, she was getting her tenses confused. What was important though that Gwen knew exactly what she was letting herself in for and that would take a lot longer to achieve if it wasn't done on her first day. Lucy sighed, she also had to admit to herself that one of the reasons she didn't want to change anything was because she was scared of what would happen if she did. Being in the Doctor Who universe was one thing, but she wasn't sure how she would cope if she didn't have the future knowledge, no matter how difficult it made things. It was like a safety blanket, she had knowledge of what to do in certain situations and she hoped she would be able to put that knowledge to its best use.  
Owen immediately started scanning it with a piece of basic - but good and useful - field equipment.  
"What do we know?" Jack asked  
"Bog-standard space debris" Owen replied glancing up from the scanner, which he was lighting with his torch, to look up at Gwen and smirk, "That's a technical term"  
"Yeah, thanks" Gwen replied as she moved to look at it from a different angle. No one moved to stop her, the first time they had seen anything something from space like this, they had taken the time to look at it as well. It was a moment in your life that, providing you didn't leave Torchwood, you would never forget. This was the moment when you truly realised how small your life was in regards to the universe, it was at this point that you knew if Torchwood was the right job for you.  
Lucy smiled as she remembered her own moment, it was when she was first properly introduced to the 'pet' pterodactyl - she had spent at least 15 minutes just gazing at Myfwany and realising that everything she knew about a TV show was real and that she was going to be given the chance to see a small part of the universe. It was a humbling experience.  
"Take all the readings and let's get out of here" Jack said to Owen, Tosh and Lucy who immediately got to work.

Due to Lucy's failings with technology she was relegated to scraping off a bit of the surface dust so that they could try and find out where it came from later on as well as getting out the right equipment for Tosh. It wasn't the most exciting stuff, especially as Lucy's interests lay in other directions and mainly included actually dealing with creatures, and an awful lot of running. Lucy smiled to herself as the Chameleon Circuit song started playing in her head, although she groaned when she realised it was just a couple of lines because she knew it would be going round her head for days and as it wasn't on her ipod she had no way of listening to full track.  
"Make yourself useful, sweetheart." Owen said, calling over to Gwen. "Pass us the big chisel from the toolbox."  
"Not sweetheart" Gwen replied, Lucy busied herself with gathering more of the surface dust from one of the slightly deeper holes so she wouldn't be able to stop it happening even if she wanted to - not without potentially causing the same problem herself. "Gwen. One syllable. I'm sure you can manage it."  
Lucy also decided it was best not to tell Gwen that antagonising Owen like that was not the best idea as it would just make his sarcastic nature worse as and he would start doing things on purpose simply because it annoyed you. This was something that Gwen would have to learn for herself as she was pretty sure it didn't come under her remit of teaching the Welsh woman the ropes.  
"Not Sweet Cheeks? Freckles? New Girl?" Owen mocked her, Gwen bent down for the chisel that Owen had asked for.  
"It's a shame your tool's not big enough for the job, darling." She said, sarcasm dripping off that last word, Jack laughed and Tosh smiled as she caught Lucy's eye. Gwen threw the chisel in Owen's direction "Catch"  
"No!" Owen shouted but it was too late, the chisel landed in the meteorite "Shit." He summed up what they were all thinking as a blue light shone from behind the chisel.

They all stared at it for a second until a gas started to be released and it jolted them all back to life, Jack threw them all gas masks and put one over Gwen's face himself. The pinkurple gas seemed to look around for a bit before it shot up to the sky.  
The captain looked at Gwen and raised an eyebrow- he was not impressed. Jack lowered his gas mask and started issuing orders.  
"Tosh, Owen, Lucy, start tiding this area up. Right now it's not important, all we have is a piece of rock, the empty spaceship. We need to get back to the hub and find out where that gas went. I'm going to call Ianto and let him know, see if he can find out anything for us to get started with when we get back to the hub."  
"I'm so sorry." Gwen said.  
"You stay there and don't throw anything." Jack ordered her as he pulled his phone out of his pocket ready to call Ianto, he lightened the order by smiling to let her know that he wasn't completely serious.

It didn't take long for them to pack everything up and they were ready to go before Jack had finished on the phone. As they walked up and back to the SUV one of the soldiers stopped them.  
"What was that gas?"  
"That's confidential." Jack replied, using his 'I'm-in-charge-and-I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think' voice.  
"You need to tell us what it was, what if it could hurt someone?"  
Gwen looked as though she was going to speak and apologise again but Lucy just stared at her coldly and shook her head, saying something now could only make it worse.  
"I'm sorry Major." Jack said seriously not giving the soldier any ground. "But this is Torchwood business not the Army's, this is our investigation so I do not need to do anything and if you could please move your men from our scene within the next couple of hours it would be appreciated. Now if you don't mind we've got work to do and you are standing in our way."  
The major automatically moved out of their way and they walked back to the SUV in silence - in the usual formation.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

No one spoke again until Owen was driving the SUV back into Cardiff and they were nearing the hub, it was Gwen who broke the silence. Tosh was focussed on the screen and Owen was focussing on the road so they didn't have to say anything. Jack was already planning ahead for what they would look for if Ianto didn't find them something, and Lucy was busy trying to work out how she would help Carys but still not change the episode.  
"I'm so sorry."  
"For future situations." Lucy said sarcastically, "we don't break meteorites and release potentially dangerous gases. I think it's rule number 78, something like that. Not at the very top but definitely one of importance that you should know. "  
"I'm really really sorry." Gwen said again, as she was sat in the middle of the car she could look at all of them.  
"Lucy calm down." Jack said simply, "Gwen stop apologising."  
"Jack she just released an alien gas." Owen wasn't impressed, as he pulled into the underground car park "She should be apologising."  
"I honestly am sorry." Gwen repeated, her Welsh accent was strong due to her emotions and her guilt. Lucy had noticed that Ianto's voice did the same thing, when he was feeling intense emotions his Welsh accent got noticeably stronger; the only other time it did that was when he was trying to flirt with Jack a bit to make sure that he didn't find out about the Cyberwoman that was currently living in Torchwood's basement.

They walked into the hub, ignoring Gwen's continual apology,  
"I'm so sorry."  
"Seriously, stop saying that." Jack turned to look at her.  
"I am though, I mean really..." She stopped and looked at them as they passed her on the way to their desks, "I mean really, really sorry. God I can't believe it."  
"Didn't they teach you health and safety in the police?" Owen asked  
"Well you were all throwing things at each other." Gwen replied slightly feebly  
"We didn't miss." Owen said harshly.  
"I'll sort it. Whatever happens, I'll deal with it" Gwen was being decisive although she realised less than a second or so later that she had no idea what it was let alone how to deal with it. "What do you think has happened? I mean it was just gas, wasn't it? Can't be too bad. Can it?"  
"And in the whole of human history, gas never hurt anyone." Lucy scoffed and Owen nodded.  
"On the plus side, we've got good evidence." Jack said, his voice loud and cutting Owen off before he could say anything. "Relatively undamaged."  
"On the downside, there's an alien on the loose, we don't know where it is, why it's here or what it's going to do." Owen added  
"Don't forget that it's a gaseous form and therefore we have no way of knowing how it's going to act, I mean it could possess someone for all we know." Lucy said, trying not to be too obvious with the idea of  
"Alright you two stop it." Jack ordered and Gwen sighed  
"This is the worst first day ever."  
"We all make mistakes. Just get over it." Her boss replied kindly "I seem to remember that neither Owen or Lucy settled in to Torchwood completely cleanly either."  
"I bet they didn't set an alien gas on the loose" Gwen said morosely.  
"No." Jack agreed "they didn't do that. But our job now is to find and recover whatever it was that came of there." Before anyone else could say anything Ianto coughed to get their attention.  
"This might help. Nightclub death, been phoned into 999. Circumstances are a little unusual. Might be connected."  
Gwen grabbed the information off Ianto and raised her eyebrows in shock as she read.  
"This, this isn't normal."  
"What have you got?" Jack asked  
"A kid died and turned into dust at the point of orgasm." Ianto replied as he could see that Gwen was trying to make sense of the report and was starting to realise that Torchwood literally dealt with anything and everything.  
"Yeah." Jack nodded as he shut the lid on the meteorite sample, "I can see how that's unusual. Let's go then"  
"Thanks for finding it Ianto." Lucy said, she had decided to make a point of saying please and thank you to Ianto every time. The way that everyone else in the hub treated him had been getting on her nerves and the fact that Gwen automatically fell into the same habit was not something she was happy about. Ianto may be the archivist and not go out into the field but he was still a member of Torchwood and it was time that he was recognised as such.  
"No problem." Ianto replied giving Lucy a weird look.

They all jumped out of the SUV and into the nightclub walking straight past the police, all of them apart from Gwen. Lucy sighed when she saw that Gwen hadn't followed her into the club, Jack gave her a look to remind her that the ex-cop was her responsibility and Lucy walked back down the corridor to find Gwen talking with Andy.  
"I meant to call it's been a bit of a whirlwind." Gwen was saying.  
"Go on then, tell us all." Andy prompted her, desperate to find out all the gossip.  
"Gwen!" Lucy said loudly from the doorway, "Gossip and catch up with friends in your own time, we've got a dead person to deal with."  
Gwen looked at Andy and pulled a face, "Sorry, you can get away now. No point you freezing you arse off out here."  
"Get your arse inside now!" Lucy said forcefully and Gwen ran inside, Lucy didn't follow her instead she walked up to talk to Andy and the other cop.  
"Sorry about that, apparently it's my responsibility to deal with her because I'm the newest. I'll make sure to remind to her to call you - but she really can't tell you about what we do in our job - Official Secrecy Act. But she was right about one thing, you don't need to wait outside, we'll deal with it."  
"So she's the boss of me now then?" Andy said and he obviously wasn't happy.  
Lucy shrugged, "Sorry, that's just the way the penny falls sometimes. I've got to get back inside, have a good night Constable Davidson."  
"You too." Andy replied before realising something, "Hey, how do you know my name?"  
"We're Torchwood." Lucy said with a small grin before going back inside and finding the rest of the team in the girls loos standing around a pile of dust.

"You took your time." Jack commented, Lucy just shrugged.  
"So, that pile of dust used to be a kid?"  
"You can't really call him a kid." Tosh pointed out, "He was probably only a couple of years younger than you."  
"How old are you?" Gwen asked, honestly interested. It had been bugging her that Lucy didn't look out of place inside Torchwood even though the rest of the team looked to be in their late 20s or early 30s - she would later learn that not many people in Torchwood Cardiff reached their 30th birthday, or worked for more than 4 years. It was something that would worry her when she found out, but by that time she would be in too deep and wouldn't want to leave no matter the threat. That was the problem with Torchwood, it made you not care that you were risking your life. All of the team knew that every big job could kill them, it was something that they had to simply accept and then shove to the back of their minds. In Lucy's case it was the death of her friends that she continually forced herself not to think about, and she wasn't sure which one was worse; not knowing that this could be someone's last job, or knowing that it wasn't because you already knew the circumstances of their deaths.  
"Is that really important now?" Lucy asked "We've got something that turned a kid," Jack raised an eyebrow and she amended her words "ok - something that turned a guy into a pile of dust, and you want to know how old I am?"  
"I was just wondering." Gwen said quietly.  
"She's 23." Jack said to Gwen before looking at the bar manager, "More importantly though how did you know this used to be a body?" The Owner looked uncomfortable at the question.  
"Er... I was keeping an eye on the cameras, and um I noticed... well..." It was clear that he didn't want to tell them what had really happened but they all knew what he was implying. "Bit of a shock, I tell you."  
"We need to see that CCTV" Jack said and he nodded, "It's in my office." Jack raised an eyebrow at him and the owner left the toilets and showed them up to his office where the tape was still in the player. Lucy smiled a bit at the idea that they were still using tapes, it seemed so old fashioned by today's standards and even more so when she was surrounded by high-tech Torchwood equipment. She had to remind herself that it was only 2007 and although video tapes for recording purposes were dying out they were still in use; it was still expensive to record onto DVD.  
The CCTV played and they all watched as at the point of orgasm the teenage boy became pure energy and a pile of dust.  
"Wow" Jack said  
"My God!" Tosh gasped  
Gwen stumbled over her words, "He just..."  
"Came and went." Jack completed the sentence for her and Owen laughed  
"Now that's how I'd like to go."  
"I'm sure we can arrange it." Tosh pointed  
"How can that be?" The club owner was still confused, it was as though he had tried to convince himself that he'd made it up, but now there were others who had seen the same thing he was no longer able to deny it. "It doesn't make any sense."  
"Life rarely does." Lucy said with a sigh.  
"But it's not possible."  
"Well it happened so clearly it is possible." If there was one thing Lucy didn't have time for it was people who refused to believe things even when they had seen it happen.  
"Do you know the girls name?" Gwen asked him "Did the two of them arrive together or meet in the club? Is she a regular? Would any of the other staff know her?"  
"I don't know." he had finally reached the end of his tether "We get hundreds of people here every weekend! We don't keep tabs."  
Jack moved and clapped him on the back, "Thanks for your help, we've got everything we need. But my colleague here," he pointed at Lucy "will be taking that CCTV." He gently pushed him out of his own office, while Lucy removed the tape from the player.  
"What are you talking about?" Gwen asked Jack, "We don't even know her name."  
"This is Torchwood." Lucy pointed out sarcastically, "Did you really think we would need the normal Q and A session."  
"Exactly." Jack agreed, "We really do have everything we need." He pulled out his a gadget from his pocket as he left the office quickly and the others all followed him  
"We'll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match to the dead guy's appearance." He gave the orders as they ran through the club. "Disfigure the face, make it look like a suicide attempt."  
All of the team apart from Gwen, kept moving knowing that the sooner they found the girl and the creature the less deaths they could prevent. Gwen, however, stopped and stared at Jack.  
"You have a stash of bodies?"  
Lucy rolled her eyes but didn't reply to Gwen, she followed Tosh and Owen and got into the SUV. Tosh got straight to her computer and Lucy just looked at Owen who shrugged.  
"Don't look at me, I deal with bodies so until we actually get one I'm useless." Lucy sighed and agreed with him.  
"I feel the same but not with the body dealing bit. All we know is that the alien has taken on the host body of a young girl." She felt bad for lying and knew that there was no way she could do it for another 29 episodes. "We don't even know who the girl is."  
"Jack's finding out what he can about the gas. I'm finding the girl." Tosh said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"So what do you think about the new girl then?" Owen asked, it was the first time since Gwen had started they had had a moment to talk about it  
"She's naive." Lucy replied straight away and Tosh agreed, finally looking up from her computer  
"She's ex-cop. It's going to take a while before she gets used to how we do things."  
"Are we sticking to the plan about Jack?"  
"Yeah." Owen agreed, "We can grill her later, but for now he doesn't know that we know. Actually that's a lie I'm pretty sure he knows that you know about his little secret." Owen pointed out "There is no damn way that would not be in the TV show, plus Suzie shot him and you saw that on the CCTV. You probably know all of our secrets."  
"I wish I didn't know anything." Lucy replied, purposefully not saying anything either way about their secrets.  
"You're not the only one." Owen grumbled "The worst thing is you know about my future secrets before I do. That's not fair."  
"Stop it." Tosh admonished him. "It's not Lucy's fault. She was stolen by the rift and had no choice about the matter."  
"Thanks Tosh." Lucy smiled at her, "But it doesn't solve the problem."  
"Agreed." Owen added. " What about you?" Lucy was confused,  
"What do you mean, what about me? I'm not planning on telling her about Jack."  
"He means, do we tell her about you coming from a parallel world?" Tosh explained  
"Oh." Lucy said, she honestly hadn't thought about it. "Probably not, I don't know."  
"What doesn't Lucy know?" Jack asked as he opened the door and slid into the SUV, Gwen a couple of seconds behind him.  
"Anything to do with technology." Tosh said after a small pause before Owen could say anything crude.  
"I'm getting better." Lucy replied automatically, grateful that her friend had covered for her.  
"Lucy you say that every day" Jack laughed. "And Tosh still won't let you near any of the stuff that's not considered basic. Let's get back to the hub, I've got some information to start scanning now, and I want to find out who that girl is. The alien has definitely taken on a host body."

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: Hope you like how Lucy's interaction changes the flow of the episode although the plot line still stays the same. Day 1 is split into three parts so you've got another 2 weeks of it.**  
**Thanks for everyone whose reviewed, added me to your alerts and favourites list. It really means a lot. Please don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you next week.**


	5. Chapter 5 - Day 1, part 2

**A/N: Welcome to part 2**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"So what does this do?" Gwen asked Lucy, Jack was busy doing something with a laser and a glass window with drawings on.

"I'm using satellite tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite." Jack replied before Lucy could say anything. "One thing about Torchwood you'll need to know." He continued stopping to turn round and smirk at Lucy before going back to what he was doing "Lucy is rubbish with alien tech, or even anything above basic human tech."  
"He's trying to be funny and trying to find out which bit of space our monster for the week has come from. Besides Jack I've already warned Gwen that technology isn't my thing. You're just making yourself look stupid by repeating it."

"It's not being funny." Tosh said as she walked in and handed Jack something, "It's true."

"And anyway sometimes a little techno-babble is good for the soul."  
"Thank you Doctor Spock." Lucy grumbled and Jack laughed immediately getting the reference. Gwen looked at Owen and Tosh who shrugged.

"Another thing you need to learn." Owen said, "Jack and Lucy have a secret language and we have all given up learning about it. You might know what the words mean in ordinary circumstances but it means something completely different to them."

Gwen decided it wasn't worth asking before going back to the original question about what her boss was doing.

"So that's like a route planner?"  
"Not fair off." Tosh replied.

"My boyfriend, Rhys, he's a transport manager. He does this sort of stuff, on a slightly smaller scale though."  
"You have a boyfriend?" Tosh was immediately interested and Lucy smiled, she liked Rhys even if she thought that he was much too good for Gwen and for Torchwood.

"Yeah." Gwen replied with a smile, turning to look at the Asian woman, "Do you?"  
"Don't have time with this job."

"What about you?" Gwen asks Owen and Lucy slightly uncomfortable at Tosh's answer. Owen just scoffed

"You've got to be joking, I get all the grief I need here."

"Owen does one-night stands, not relationships." Lucy laughed.  
"Whilst you live with your crush in some sick pretence of normality." He responded

"How many times?" Lucy sighed, "Ianto and I are _friends_! Just like I'm friends with you guys, he just happened to be the one who offered me the spare room when I started this job cause I had nowhere to live and he is too nice to kick me out."

"You've been there nearly 3 months, any plan on moving out?"  
"Not yet, why you jealous?"  
"None of you have partners or a life outside of her?" Gwen asked, wanting confirmation.

"Just you newbie."

"I've got a younger sister." Lucy said with a shrug. "I can't see her due to certain circumstances but she does exist."

There was a brief pause while Gwen worked out how to phrase her next question.

"I'm not being rude or anything, but... well maybe I am, how do you switch off from all this stuff? What do you do to relax?"

They all looked at each other slightly uncomfortably, not sure how to answer the question. Owen was the first to speak.

"I torture people in happy relationships."

"And his liver" Lucy added, "You torture that as well."

"Just because you don't drink doesn't mean I shouldn't." Owen smirked

"I never said it did." Lucy shrugged. "You do that, and I watch a fuck lot of DVDs. Tosh reads loads and fiddles with technology, Jack stands on roofs and stares at Cardiff and Ianto makes amazing coffee and normally picks apart whatever it is that I'm watching."

"And you two claim that you're not a couple." Owen said sarcastically and Jack and Tosh gave a small laugh.

"We're not" Lucy repeated although she knew that she would never be able to change Owen's mind. He was as bad as a dog with a bone.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Gas traces confirmed as vorax and ceranium." Tosh said a couple of hours later, waking Lucy, Owen and Gwen up from their naps. It was a skill Lucy had learnt in the first week of the job and one she felt was important in passing on to Gwen, now she was her mentor.

Naps were good, naps were needed.

Torchwood days could reach 19 or 20 hours plus on one job and you had to learn to grab sleep when you could, going home wasn't necessarily an option. Also, Ianto's coffee was a life saver.

"Great" Jack said sarcastically as he walked over to Tosh's work station, "my two favourite gases. Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?"

"I'm all over it." Owen said putting down the file he was looking at before he fell asleep and starting to work on his computer.

"What's this thing doing?" Gwen asked as she woke herself up properly, gesturing to the search that was running on every work station.

"I've taken an image of the girl from the CCTV of the club. That cross-checks her face with the UK population" Tosh replied not looking up as Ianto walked around delivering the coffee. Lucy knew that he had made it to give Tosh a caffeine boost as she had stayed awake so long and to make sure that the others all woke up properly; he prided himself at being good at his job.

"And then it's my job to find out more about her." Lucy continued.

"You can't have every face in the UK on there." Gwen said getting annoyed, "That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff..."  
"Hmm..." Lucy didn't say anything but smiled at Ianto as he passed her her mug. "Thanks Yan. You're an angel."

"No problem." He replied

"Still doing that 'you' instead of 'we' thing" Jack pointed out

"Damn." Owen said as the scan finished, "119 suspects. This thing is supposed to give us a single clear match."

"The CCTV was too low res" Tosh explained, "I've tried magnifying and augmenting, but it just breaks up. Which means the software can't function properly" They could all tell she wasn't happy with the situation but also needed to remind Owen that it wasn't the problem of her software; the blame laid elsewhere.

"It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest for you." Ianto offered and they all stared at him, Lucy tried not to laugh because she knew and loved the line that Ianto was going to say next. "You know, the old fashioned way, with my eyes"

Lucy tried not to laugh, she really did but when Ianto pointed at his eyes and Tosh seemed so confused and annoyed that there was something that her software couldn't do, it was too much. She giggled and once she started it was hard to stop.

She was living inside Torchwood, this was an actual real thing. Her life was a TV program and one she knew well. It had been odd before Gwen had started and she had known it in theory but had quickly got used to working with television characters and got to know them as people, but now that Gwen was on the team it was all different. This wasn't just working with the characters, this was living the episodes. She knew what was going to happen, she knew where to go looking to find the girl that they were all hunting for. And more than that she knew the ending, or at least an ending. It was starting to become a bit much and she couldn't help but laugh at the turn her life had taken.

Ianto raised an eyebrow at her and deftly removed the mug of coffee from her hands before she could either break it or throw coffee over herself, the computer or any other member of the team

"It appears that Lucy has had too much caffeine." Their boss commented as they all looked at her and she tried to get her laughter and minor breakdown under control.

"I've always got the decaf sir." Ianto said and that shocked Lucy into ceasing her laughter.

"You wouldn't dare." She breathed. "Give me my coffee, please Ianto..."

"What about the finger prints I took off the alley wall?" Gwen asked, trying to get things back on track while she worked out more about how they all worked as a team.

Tosh turned away from Lucy, who was in a staring match with Ianto for her coffee, and quickly ran the scan. It came out negative.

"It was a long shot." Gwen shrugged

"Yeah just a bit." Owen muttered

"At least I'm trying to do something."  
"No." He countered, "You're trying to do anything."

"The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club." Jack said, stopping the argument before it could begin. "Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via the street camera network?"

Tosh thought about it briefly before saying, "I'll have a go, but it will take a while to process. Every possible turn on every street corner means hundred and thousands of probabilities."

"Have a go. At least we'll know where she started the evening."

"HA!" Lucy said loudly as she got her mug back from Ianto "MY COFFEE"

"Yes Lucy." Jack sighed, not even turning round to look at her "It's your coffee, but please don't turn hysterical again."  
"This bit of the job bores me." Lucy moaned as she started to drink.

"It's necessary."  
"I know that it's still dull. Anyway, we can cross-check the addresses of the 119 girls with where she came from, even if Tosh just uses the first couple of corners it should cross off a fair few of the potential hosts. And what about using the CCTV from inside the club, we got a better look at her on that. Can't we use that to check against the 119 - I bet that crosses a bunch off as well."  
"Good idea." Jack said with a smirk, "You're not just good on the field."  
"Just because I have an idea about how to speed this bit up, doesn't stop it being boring."

"Well I know what you can do while they are working on that."

"What?"  
"Set up Gwen on the system. Obviously just the basic stuff, and she needs to fill out the standard paper work as well."  
"Joy" Lucy deadpanned before opening a software on her computer "Come on then Cooper, let's get you up and running. You'll still have to have your medical." She got out of her seat and let Gwen sit down.  
"I'm doing that tomorrow." Owen added, "Or at least the day after this is all finished."

"Well you may as well have this work station." Lucy shrugged, "I've got a small computer downstairs by the range that Tosh set up for me."  
"Only as a temporary one." Tosh chipped in, as she got on with her work.

"Well I'm sure Jack won't mind if I move down there more permanently. I've got stuff to be getting on with after all."  
"Providing you have a laptop or something that you can, and do, use regularly up here I don't like the idea of my team being separated from each other, we allowed Suzie to do her own thing and look what happened. Use the shooting range one for when we have nothing major on and you guys are all getting on with your side projects."  
"Brilliant" Lucy grinned, "Thanks Jack." She couldn't help but feel sorry for Ianto though, he was still in the area and Jack was talking about the team working as a group and keeping an eye on each other, and yet they were all happy to ignore the Welshman.

"I've got a hit." Ianto said ten minutes later, "Carys Jones, 17, lives at 25 West Rise. I'm patching the information through to the SUV's SatNav."  
"Ok." Jack said grabbing some protection suits, "Everyone get suited up, grab the gas masks on your way out. Let's go."  
While everyone was rushing to get ready Lucy quickly pulled the protection suit over her clothes and walked over to Ianto.

"Thanks Ianto."  
"It's my job." He replied with a shrug,

"I know, but you still found her. So thanks and well done."

"You should go." He gestured, Gwen was worriedly waiting not quite sure what to do. Lucy sighed but nodded.

"See you in a bit. Come on Cooper, first proper time out on the field. Rule 1. Listen to Jack. Rule 2. Don't get yourself killed - I don't want all the extra paperwork that would cause me." Gwen gave a small smile as the two went down to the car park, she wasn't quite sure if Lucy was joking or not but decided to act as though she was. "Rule 3. The Doctor lies, no sorry that's rule number 1."  
"Whose the Doctor? Owen?" Gwen asked

"Nah, he's _a_ doctor. _The_ Doctor is a friend of Jack's and one of my hero's. He's not here and you'll find out about him some day. I just wanted to say it that's all." She stopped suddenly as she remembered something else. "Also, another rule 1. Don't wander off"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Half an hour later they were walking Carys into the hub. Tosh and Owen immediately took their findings to the computers, whilst Lucy moved to go put the extra weapons away.

"See what you can find out from her." Jack ordered Gwen who replied both worried and surprised that Jack would trust her that much so early on.

"Well aren't you going to help me?" She asked as Jack started to walk up to his office. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"Try not to say that in front of any prisoner." Lucy called over

"Lucy will come and help you once she's done with the weapons." Jack added, "She's your 'mentor'"  
"Not by choice" Lucy shouted over again, "Take her down to the cells and talk to her, I'll be five minutes."

They watched as Gwen slightly awkwardly walked the woman/alien through the hub and down into the cells.

"It does feel a bit mean." Tosh said when she knew that Gwen could no longer hear her.

"She's got to get thrown into the deep end." Jack shrugged, "Torchwood doesn't have a gradual sliding scale, and even if we did with a team this size we wouldn't have time to use it."  
"I'll go down and help her in a bit." Lucy said as she disassembled the last gun, "It's not like we can't watch her from up here. But she let this creature out so know she needs to face the consequence. Only this time the consequence is some sort of sex gas monster that has taken on the host of at 21 year old."  
"I'm not saying it's wrong." Tosh agreed, "It just feels a bit mean."

"Well now I've finished with these," Lucy gestured at the guns on the sofa "I'll go down and help her. Also I've been thinking, Gwen doesn't need to know my history, I'm just another Torchwood Agent. It's not like any of us are going to tell her about how we joined Torchwood - I don't see why she should know."  
"Because you know about her personal future." Jack offered

"That's not going to change if we tell her or not, it'll just change how she thinks about me and make her paranoid." Lucy shrugged. "I don't want her knowing Jack."

Jack stared at Lucy for half a minute before nodding, "Ok. We try to make sure Gwen doesn't know - you're going to have to tell her at some point."  
"I know, I'd just like to be normal for a while."

"And you need to tell me when you know an episode, that way I know how much you are available to help."

"I can't tell you what's 'supposed' to happen." She said with a shrug  
"Agreed."  
"Deal." Lucy walked down towards the cells to join Gwen. "Oh, by the way. This episode is called Day 1."

Jack gave a small laugh, "Of course it is."

Lucy arrived at the cells just in time to see Gwen start to snog Carys, as she knew it wouldn't be dangerous - just humiliating - for the newest member of the team she didn't stop the couple straight away.

15 seconds later, she announced her presence by opening the door and pulling Gwen off the other woman and pushing her out into the corridor before following herself and closing Carys back into the cell.

"For the record -" Lucy said harshly, "interrogations don't involve getting off with the subject. Especially not ones that kill through sex." She turned to look at Carys, "Am I speaking to the human or the alien?"

"She broke my ship" Carys responded and Lucy nodded in understanding,

"The alien then. She didn't do it on purpose. Why have you taken Carys body?"  
"Why shouldn't I? Arghhhhh" Carys collapsed in on herself in pain but Lucy made no move to go and help her even though she wanted to help.

"Carys?" She asked kindly and the girl nodded

"Where am I? Who are you?"  
"What can you remember?"  
"I was in the club, and there was this pink gas and... oh god..."

"You're here so we can keep an eye on you and keep you safe. We're trying to help you."  
"By locking me up?"

"You've got a creature living inside you Carys and it's already killed once." Gwen said and Lucy nodded.

"It's the only way we can keep you and others safe Carys."

"I'm losing."

"Don't you dare give up." Lucy said firmly "I am not going to tell your father that he is never going to see his daughter again. You stay strong and stay human. I'll get you a book or a magazine, something to keep your human mind busy. We've got to go back to work, see you later Carys."  
"Thank you." Carys replied

"No problem." Lucy smiled, "I'll try and make sure the mag has some sexy guys in. Orlando Bloom or Johnny Depp?"

"Either." Carys laughed and Lucy was glad to see her smile, it might make no difference in the long run but for now at least she wasn't thinking about the thing inside her. She was just a normal girl. Even if she was in a cell.

"Come on Gwen." Lucy walked upstairs and Gwen gave a small look back before starting to follow. When they reached the stairs, Gwen's phone went off and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"It's Rhys." Gwen said after glancing at it.

"Well, tell lover boy we still want you and he'll have to wait." She sighed, "I'll see you upstairs in a few minutes."

"Thanks." Gwen said before answering the phone call. "Hiya babe."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Five minutes later, Gwen, Owen and Jack all walked up from the cells; all three looking angry and annoyed.

"What's up?" Lucy asked

"Newbie tried to strangle me." Owen replied as he walked over to his desk

"We've all tried to strangle you in the past."  
"Yeah but not on your first day you haven't."  
"What did you do?" Tosh asked from her desk, as she stopped working to look over at Owen

"I may have mentioned that I was impressed with her interrogation technique that's all."

"Well then you deserved it."  
"And as I pointed out." Jack added, "Throttling of the staff is my job. I'm all for delegation but there are some things that I like to do myself."

Lucy rolled her eyes as Jack once again managed to make everything sound sexual.

"So..." Ianto said as the cog door rolled backwards and he walked into the hub holding a cardboard box. "Whose for Chinese?"

"Yes please." Jack said, "We'll go up to the conference room. What did you get?"  
"All the usuals; only in larger portions so Gwen could have some." Ianto replied. "Tosh can you grab the plates?"  
"Sure" The Japanese woman replied, "and a fork for you as well Lucy, don't worry I haven't forgotten. Gwen?"  
"Yeah, what?" Gwen was confused as to what she was being asked

"Chopsticks or a fork?"

"Fork please." Gwen replied in understanding. "I've never been able to get chopsticks to work."

"No problem."

Soon they were all in the conference room, eating, laughing, telling stories and enjoying each other's company although Gwen wasn't as involved as the rest of them. She felt left out of this small family even though she knew it was going to take time for her to work her way into the team and how it subconsciously worked, it still upset her.

"She says... she said" Jack was finishing a story and the rest of them were laughing as they knew the ending. "'If I'd known what he was, I never would have married him'"

"She knew" Tosh added "She knew all along."  
"She didn't care." Owen pointed out and Ianto automatically picked up the story.

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub."  
"Honestly" Lucy said, "I swear the only reason she cared about that was because Mr Muscle wouldn't wash it out."

"Always a big give away." Jack laughed, "aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Which reminds me." He got up from the table "Gotta pee."  
"We didn't need to know that." Lucy said rolling her eyes as she returned to her food.

The minute Jack was gone the mood turned sombre and they all looked at Gwen.

"So what's he told you?" Owen asked

"What about?" Gwen replied

"Himself." Tosh said as though it was obvious.  
"You've been here longer than I have." Gwen pointed out.

"We were banking on you."  
"You're a copper, you're trained to ask questions." Lucy continued the interrogation even though the others knew that she knew the answers to most of their questions as well as how much Gwen knew. In that moment Lucy was completely grateful that Torchwood had her back, she didn't need to be involved in this conversation but the rest of the team knew that if she wasn't Gwen would want to know why and then the truth about her past would be known. By keeping her involved it kept her secret no matter how much they didn't like what that secret involved.

"You don't know anything?"  
"Not who he is, not where he's form." Owen replied taking another drink from his beer bottle. "Nothing, except him being gay."

"No, he's not. Really, do you think? No." Gwen said and Tosh and Lucy agreed.

"Owen does." Tosh said, "Lucy and I don't."  
"And I don't care" Ianto added, Lucy rolled her eyes at that thinking that Ianto would certainly start to care when they got together in the next year or so.

"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man." Owen said as though it was the most obvious reason for his argument in the world and nothing could defeat it.

"I think it suits him." Gwen said with a smile and Lucy could see the beginnings of a school yard crush. "Sort of classic."

"Exactly." Tosh agreed, "I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough."  
"I honestly think he doesn't care if it's a male, woman or an it. As long as it's alive," Lucy said "I'm not even sure if he thinks about it."  
"We know he's from America right?" Gwen asked

"We don't even know that for sure." Owen said

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last 50 years."

"Changing his name and deleting records isn't too difficult though." Lucy pointed out. "I mean I couldn't do it, but Tosh you could do it easily, you too Ianto."

They both nodded their heads in recognition and agreement.

"Maybe his identity is classified." Gwen offered as she leant over to get another prawn cracker

"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon." Ianto said.

"He must have his reasons for wanting to keep things secret." Gwen pointed out.

"Sure" Owen agreed "Doesn't stop me wanting to know what those reasons are though."

The group fell into silence for the first time since they started eating. Gwen had passed their test, she wasn't going to tell them the little she knew about Jack, even though that little amount was a big deal - the ability to not stay dead was something you would want to know about your boss. However just because Gwen didn't tell them and they would now accept her into the group did not mean that were going to tell her what they had learnt up to this point. It only meant that they would keep her involved in all further discoveries about their time-travelling boss.

The lack of conversation meant that they could hear the background computer noise of the CCTV of Carys cell, she was sobbing.

"What's that sound?" Gwen asked as Jack walked back in and turned the screen on. Carys was sitting on the piece of concrete that passed as a bed, sobbing her heart out with her knees pulled tight to her chest. Gwen put down her fork and walked towards the screen, never taking her eyes off the image.

"What are we doing eating Chinese while a girl fights for her life?"

"Actually," Jack replied. "while we've been eating the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys. Profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, the works. So we can see what effect the alien is having on her. They've also been taking samples of the air in the cell, so we can analyse any changes in the environment around her." Lucy could see on Gwen's face that she wasn't impressed and could feel the tell-tell sign of her fast temper rising. In the second she heard Carys' tears Gwen had judged them all and found them wanting. She had no idea what this job entailed, she had been doing it for less than 12 hours and already she thought that they weren't doing it properly.

Jack raised his eyes at Gwen as he ate another mouthful of his dinner before speaking again.

"Now, is that enough? Do you want more? 'Cause it kind of gets boring." He gave a small derisive laugh.

Gwen just stared at them all, pity in her eyes.

"You've been hidden down here too long." She made eye contact with every member of the team and Lucy once more got the impression that she wasn't good enough, that Gwen thought her just a kid who had got lucky. "Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human."

Lucy knew there was no defence of her actions, but she had already been trying to control her temper and an insult on that level was not something she was going to let pass. The red mist descended and she growled as she leapt out of her seat, ready to bash Gwen into little tiny pieces, although even in her haze of anger she realised that sounded warped. Owen jumped out his chair as well and forcibly held Lucy back as she struggled in his arms. She had already been in a bad mood and had guessed what Gwen thought of them, but actually hearing it was another matter entirely.

"Let me go." She said trying to pull out of Owen's grip.

"Not until you calm down."

"I damn well know what it means to be human." Lucy was still growling in rage at the insult, "How dare... You have no clue. None at all!" She spat the words at Gwen and was glad to see that Gwen was scared of her and what she could do.

"Right now you are acting more like a wolf than a human." Jack said sternly, "Calm down and stop growling. She didn't mean you."

"I don't care, we're all damn well human. She can't..." Lucy stopped growling, as she tried to get control of her anger. Although, Owen still didn't let her go as he could feel her still shaking with rage.

"Gwen, just go and get on with some work. Show us what it means to be human in the 21st Century. Go." Jack said gently pushing her out of the room so he could deal with Lucy.

Gwen left the room, slightly scared of Lucy but wanting to prove to Jack she was worthy of this job, and wanting to solve the problem that she had caused.

Owen released his hold on Lucy, once Jack had moved to cover the door to make sure that Lucy wasn't going to chase after Gwen. Lucy screamed and threw her plate at the wall, the rest of the team decided that it was best for them to leave and let the boss calm their team mate down.

"Feel better?" Jack asked with a wry smile

"No," She replied although her anger induced haze was starting to go and she was now angry at herself for allowing it to take control rather than her controlling it.

"Thought you were going to turn green at one point." Jack laughed and Lucy gave a slight smile back as she sat on the floor, pulling her knees in tight.

"Sorry Jack. I really thought I had it under control. I honestly did, I've not lost my temper like that for years I swear. At least now you know why I don't drink – I'm damn scared of what I could do, as well as other things." She sighed, "God I was literally growling at Gwen."

"Well you definitely made an impact that no one else could have done. Are you sure you're not a werewolf?"

The question made the required impact, and Lucy laughed. "Pretty sure. I've been here for a couple of full moons now. And although my temper is more volatile once a month, it's doesn't follow the moon."

Jack thought for a bit, "Come on, you can go play at the shooting range. Get rid of some of that anger that way, and then you can apologise to Gwen later."

Lucy got up but shock her head, "I'll apologise now. But yeah, playing with a gun sounds like fun." She smiled, "Thanks Jack. And I really am sorry. Most insults I've learnt to just let roll off my back – I've had enough of them directed at me. But to say that I'm not human, and to imply she's the only one who cares what happens to Carys. I don't know." She pulled at her plait, "I just let it overtake me. I was planning to bash her into little bits. Even though I knew that that was literally nonsense."

"It's ok Lucy. Like I said, let's just get you using a gun and move on with life and help Carys yeah?"

She nodded, "Yeah. She needs some food, so I'll take the pasta I cooked earlier but never got round to eating. I'll go down in a bit and I'll apologise to Gwen on the way as well"

"No problem. But next time, try and get down to the shooting range before you start attacking your colleagues. Might be better for everyone." Jack left her to it, and she watched him talk briefly with the rest of the team as he passed them on the way to his office.

Lucy quickly tidied up the table and walked out of the conference/dining room. Owen was the first to spot her and started clapping.

"Oh well done, that is what I call a perfect way to end her already brilliant first day on the job."

"Thanks!" Lucy replied sarcastically, "I'm glad I achieved what I was aiming for."

"Well you nearly scared me, and I'm not a girl."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not." Lucy said slightly confused before walking over to Gwen.

"I... er... I just wanted to say sorry. You _can't_ make that claim about us after knowing us for less than 12 hours but I shouldn't have reacted like that. I can offer loads of excuses but no real reason. Sorry Gwen."

"No problem." Gwen said quickly "just don't do it again."

"Don't make judgements like that about me again and we'll be fine." Lucy countered "Once you're finished with telling us all about being human come down to the range. I'll see if your skills are up to Torchwood standards."

"I've never used a gun before, I was on the beat." Gwen replied slightly worried and Owen called over to them.  
"You're almost a newbie, should you really be teaching her about Torchwood standards?"  
"You're just jealous because you know you couldn't beat me if you tried Owen!" Lucy shouted back before turning back to Gwen. "That's fine, I'll get you decent with at least one gun. And until then, don't actually shoot it and look threatening?" She shrugged, and grabbed the thermos flask from on the desk. "I'm going to take some food down to Carys and then go onto the range, call me if you need me. Just um... do whatever research or work that you think needs to be done. We'll start your gun training once this incident has been dealt with. See you later."

Lucy walked down to Carys cell. "Do you mind standing at the back while I bring your food in?"

"You think I'm going to hurt you?"  
"I think you're a scared girl who wants to get out of the cell you're trapped in, as well as having a creature inside you that is desperate to get out as well. It's just a precaution. I mean the foods not much, pasta, ham and a tomato sauce but it should still be hot or at least hotish. So," she asked the question again. "Are you willing to stand at the back of the cell while I give you food?"

Carys nodded and took a couple of steps back, Lucy opened the door and immediately noticed the pheromones in the air. The concept of snogging the teenager sounded the most appealing one in that instant but she forced herself to ignore it - the thought of one of her colleagues, flashed into her mind but it was gone before she had time to properly notice its existence. She walked out of the cell again and shut the door, breathing in the clear air grateful for the unfogging of her mind that came half a second later.  
"Sorry I've not got that magazine for you yet. I'll speak to Ianto about what we've got upstairs and get the next person to come down with it."  
"Please help me." Carys begged walking up to the door and putting her hands on it, Lucy could see she was fighting tears.

"We're doing the best we can Carys." Lucy replied, "I promise. You've got the best team in the world working on it. You're going to be fine."

She walked away from the cells and towards what was quickly becoming known as 'Lucy's area', the shooting range.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Sooooo Lucy lost her temper in a biiig way with Gwen. I had fun writing that.**

**Thank you to everyone who put my story on their alerts list and on the favourites list (would be nice to have a few more reviews though... small wink wink nudge nudge). I'm really glad that people are finding and liking my story.**

**See you next week, reviews make me happy**

**Rea**


	6. Chapter 6 - Day 1, part 3

**Enjoy the last past of Day 1**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy sent a quick text to Ianto about a magazine for Carys before picking up the .45 she had been practising with the day before as well as the ear protectors. She ran her eyes over the targets and made a mental note to get Ianto to buy some more as they were full of holes. Lucy also decided she was going to take all the empty beer bottles and line them up so she could practice precision shooting as well.

An hour later, the red light that had been installed started flashing and Lucy quickly pulled off the ear protectors and ran up to the main area, the gun still in her hand. Jack had installed three lights into the shooting range so that they could communicate with Lucy while she was down there; red, yellow and green. Green just meant she should come upstairs but it wasn't an emergency, so far that had only been used to tell her the take-away had arrived. Yellow was for slightly more important things, such as a debriefing or a minor problem. Red meant that something was wrong and she was needed straight away - whatever it was, it was an emergency.

She got upstairs to see Gwen and Tosh walking back into the hub while Jack put the Doctor's hand into a new jar.

"What happened?" She asked, although she was pretty sure of what the answer was going to be.

"Owen was being a _cock_." Gwen replied.

"Owen's always a cock." Lucy said confused, "Doesn't mean you need to send the emergency signal."  
"Carys escaped." Tosh explained. "Owen went down to check on her and she took his swipe card, as well as all of his clothes."

"I didn't need that mental image." Lucy said with a small shake of her head. "So what do we do now, apart from the obvious which is find her."

"Well after all I said to Jack, a severed hand seemed to be more important to him than a young girls life." Gwen was not impressed and it was obvious in the way she spoke

"And you don't know or understand why that is so shut up." Lucy said quickly. "It's still only your first day remember."  
"Calm down Lucy." Jack said soothingly before looking at Gwen. "If it's so important to you, _you_ find her. Use your friends in the police to do something useful."  
"I'll call them and get them to put out an ABP. Woman possessed by gas knobbing fellows to death."

Owen ran up from the med bay, he had obviously got his spare set of clothes and lab coat while the others were chasing Carys.

"Oi! You'd better get in here." They all walked over to the bay to see what was so important.

"So I'm trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan, yeah?" He gestured at the rat to show that that was what it was there for. "But it's all just a mess. Like there is no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So as soon as you think you've got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure, whatever, it all goes wild again."

"Because she's fighting the alien for control of her own body?" Jack asked

"Exactly."  
"So does that mean it's changing from human into the gas or whatever body the gas normally uses?" Lucy asked

"Probably. So I decided to do a comparative diagnostic, recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what's going to happen to Carys."

"Thanks." Gwen replied and Lucy just gave him a small smile to know that she was grateful as well.

"I infected the rat with a of the vorax and ceranium gas traces we found down at the crash site and at the nightclub."

"Looks fine so far." Tosh commented.

"Once that gases start to flow around the body the party really starts." He projected the computer screen onto the wall so everyone could see what was happening. "The heart rate triples, the brain swells, pressing against the skull." He pointed at each section of the body as he spoke about it. "As that keeps going, the lungs begin to shrink making it impossible to breathe, the pressure increases on all the internal organs, until..."

The rat in the box exploded and they all flinched in surprise and horror. Owen just smirked and looked quite impressed with himself.

"Rat jam!"  
"And that's what's going to happen to Carys." Gwen asked horrified but Lucy had a different question.

"You timed that perfectly. Just _how_ many rats have you exploded to know how long it would take and what would happen, and more importantly have you told Ianto he has to clean exploded rats from those boxes yet?"

"That was my fourth rat and..." He pretended to think about it. "No and it's his job to tidy up after us."  
"His job is as the archivist." Lucy countered

"He's the tea-boy."

Jack stepped in before it could turn into an argument.

"Lucy, Ianto accepted the role knowing that he would have to tidy around after us, he's the Alfred to our Batman. Owen, you have to tell him and it isn't really part of the job description to clean up your experiments no matter how useful they are."

"'I'm losing'. That's what she said to me." Gwen said still thinking about Carys and the rat.

"Right now, it's a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins." Owen admitted as he pulled his gloves off and threw them in the bin.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"We have to think like her." Gwen was saying as she stood in front of the board of pictures and information she had put together, trying to work out where Carys had gone. "Put ourselves in her place. It's the only way to find her"

"Except we don't know what her controlling impulse is by now. Carys or the alien inside." Jack got up from his desk to join them, "The last thing I saw was a fight for control."  
"And even if Carys is winning right now she's just a scared kid." Lucy added, "Hardly thinking straight even if she wasn't fighting for her own body."  
"The overriding factor for the parasite is to have sex." Tosh said and Lucy recognised the tone of voice she used when she was thinking about a problem and was about to solve it. "It's a survival instinct. That's bound to be the strongest drive."

"So you're Carys." Gwen said continuing Tosh's train of thought, "You're desperate to have sex because that's what the thing inside you needs. But you know it will kill, where would you go?"

"I'd come round and shag you." Owen said dryly, Lucy rolled her eyes at him and the rest just looked impressed. "What?!" He said defensively "It was a joke, can't I have a joke with my team-mates?"  
"Right now?" Tosh replied, "No."

"Well I'd go after people I didn't like, people I wouldn't care about if they died. People who had made my life hell." Lucy said drawing their minds back to the problem in hand and not Owen.

"What about brothels, lap dance clubs?" Jack offered

"I think Lucy's right." Tosh mused, "Maybe not people who had made my life hell but I'd definitely go after my exes."

They all thought about it briefly before agreeing.

"Ok." Jack said as he went back into his office to grab his great coat, "Let's get to the SUV, Gwen grab any information you have about any ex boyfriends."  
"I've only got one" Gwen said grabbing a couple of the emails, "He was cheating on his girlfriend with her and has a kid."

"Sounds like a good target. You got a name?"

"Eddie... Eddie Gwynne."

"Great." Tosh can you find out where he lives while we go there?"  
"Easily." Tosh almost looked insulted that Jack thought she couldn't.

"Right that's what we do, come on."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They had got to Eddie's house too late and, as Gwen didn't have any other information on old boyfriends, were now driving round the city centre hoping that they would find her.

"So what's our next move?"  
"Stop the entire city of Cardiff from shagging?" Owen offered

"Put Bromide in the water supply?" Gwen joked as she started to sag in the back seat of the SUV from tiredness. Torchwood was an exhausting job and she was just beginning to really understand that. This job had started on a Friday night at about 8:30pm, it was now nearing 5pm on Saturday, her body was starting to remind her that sleep was important and that just taking naps where needed was not enough.

"Too hit and miss." Jack replied seriously.

"Yeah and the water company got really annoyed the last time we did that." Owen added, Gwen sat up in her seat as she was once more reminded of the power that Torchwood had and what it meant to be a part of this team.

"It could have used anybody in Cardiff, why hers?" Tosh asked as though that might hold the clue

"I just presumed it chose her randomly." Gwen said with a shrug

"It's mining Carys life to get what it needs."Jack thought out loud "Anything you can think of?"

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Well you did all the research." Lucy pointed out, "What about her job anything useful in that?"

"She's just a temp, a receptionist."  
"Well where is she temping?" Lucy pressed the point hoping someone would work out the answer, when she had time she was going to make a list of rules for herself about how much she was allowed to change or do in advance next time she knew an episode but for now she would just have to prompt them and hope that they got to the answer in time.

"I'll pull her file up." Tosh said and quickly did so. "Conway Clinic."

"You're joking." Owen breathed as the implications of what Tosh said hit home, everyone apart from Lucy looked at him waiting to expand his point.  
"What's up?"  
"It's a bloody fertility clinic. Sperm donor, an unlimited supply of orgasmic energy without all the build-up."  
"To say that we're in deep shit would only just cover it." Lucy sighed, "I think that would count as the perfect hit."

Jack turned the SUV around and started driving back into the centre of town while Tosh brought the clinic up on the computer map so she could give directions or put it onto the SatNav when needed.

Lucy started pulling the guns out from underneath the seats, once she'd checked it was ok she passed it to one of the other team members. Gwen took it off her uncomfortably,

"What's this for?"  
"Do you really need me to answer that?" Lucy asked as she passed one forward to Owen.

"I've never used a gun. I told you that earlier, Lucy." Lucy just shrugged.  
"You were in the police." Jack said surprised

"I was on the beat."  
"And like I said earlier as well. Hold it and look threatening, try not to kill one of us and leave the safety on. " Lucy said dryly now passing out the ammunition.

"What do we do if we find her? How are we going to get that thing out of her?" Gwen asked

"Judging by the test results, the gas needed a host because prolonged exposure to our atmosphere is poisonous to it." Tosh explained.

"But our bodies are the perfect environment." Lucy continued

"So if we isolate it from Carys' body..." Jack said and Lucy nodded

"It won't survive for long." Owen agreed

"Sounds like we have ourselves a plan."  
"But how are we going to do that?" Gwen insisted

"Faith, hope and a little bit of pixie dust." Lucy said sarcastically and Owen snorted in laughter. "Look Gwen, don't question the plan. We can work out the problems with it as we go."  
"It's a pretty big problem, and it's not a plan - we're forcing it to die."  
"Just like it did those poor blokes."  
"And what about Carys?"

"Better start praying we get to her in time." Owen said seriously and the SUV fell silent as Jack continued to drive.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Three minutes later and after breaking four driving laws they pulled up outside the clinic. Jack parked the car right outside the door - breaking the fifth law - and they all jumped out, guns in hand, ready for the attack. Gwen was positioned in the middle of the group as they all recognised her as the one that needed the most protection.

Jack kicked down the door, there was no one in the main reception so they moved further into the building. Gwen was the only one to keep her gun lowered as the rest all kept it ready to use at any moment. There was one man sitting in the second reception area, he was reading a magazine and jumped up in surprise when they appeared.

"OUT!" Jack ordered him, "Get as far away from here as you can."

The man looked at them nervously and nodded, he ran from the room grabbing his bag as he did so.  
"Spread out." Jack ordered his team, "Check every room. Gwen, stay with Lucy."

Every door that they opened was to a small room and in each room there was a pile of black dust that they knew was originally a human.

"How many more?" Gwen breathed and Lucy shook her head

"I don't know, but now is not the time to be going into shock. Stay with me!"

"In here!" Owen shouted from downstairs and they ran to join him, blocking Carys into another reception room.

"Nowhere to run."

Carys looked around but they were fanned so that she couldn't get past one of them without being in the gun-line of another.

"All the sex, all we see, all we think. So much beauty and so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of-" She was unable to finish what she was saying as she screamed and doubled over in pain. Gwen moved to catch her automatically, but Lucy was closer. She helped the younger girl to the floor.

"The strain on her body is too much." Owen explained, "any second now she's rat jam."

"One more." Carys said, begged, to Lucy. "One more and I'll be strong. Each time it works less. Each time the feeling is weaker. One more, make me feel alive. Make me feel human"

"I can't Carys." Lucy said sadly, she pulled the girl in for a hug in the way she did with Becky. "I just can't." Jack stowed his gun in his holster and joined them.

"I can." He moved to give Carys a kiss

"Jack?" Gwen said from the side, warning him.

"I've got a surplus of life, I'm giving it away." He snogged Carys and the girl glowed with the energy. Lucy, Tosh and Owen all looked at each other and silently agreed to file it under the 'talk about later' category.

"That was just the kiss." Jack said with a small smirk at Carys when they stopped and she stopped glowing, "Imagine the buzz you would get from the rest." Carys grinned and then fainted in his arms. "Wasn't exactly the reaction I anticipated"  
"No" Lucy agreed, "but she's still alive."  
"Her body won't last much longer." Owen said.

Gwen walked over from where she had been standing on the side of the room and bent down to kneel at Carys head.

"Use me. Leave Carys. Take my body as host just let her live."  
"Gwen what are you doing?" Lucy asked. "I really don't want to have to tell your boyfriend you died first day on the job. Or ever, really."  
"I'm stronger than she is." The Welsh woman said looking up from where she was kneeling, her hands either side of Carys head. "I'll last longer, you know what's happening, you might be able to save me, I..."

"OK" Jack said standing up and pulling Lucy up with him.  
"Jack, you can't let her." Tosh complained

"Like she said... she responsible for this."  
"Come on then. Do it. Leave her." Gwen said as she stood up and tried to mentally prepare herself for being possessed by an alien and for the fight to control her own body.

Carys back arched and the pink gas left her, it hung in the air for a second or so before moving towards Gwen who automatically took a couple of steps backwards. As it passed Jack he threw down the portable prison cell that he had taken off Owen earlier that day when they captured Carys.

They called all hear the moans of the creature as it tried to get out and fought against the walls.

"How long can it survive in there?" Owen asked Tosh quietly

"It's pretty weak." Tosh replied "Why?"  
"Bit worried about the how long that battery will last for."

"Look" Gwen said as the gas started to fade, "it's dying." The gas fell to the ground and became a large pile of pink/brown dust, similar to the bodies that it had left in its wake. About 5 seconds after it died the battery of the cell ran out and dissipated.

"Travel halfway across the universe for the greatest sex," Jack said as he picked up the dust and let it fall through his hands, "still end up dying alone."

Gwen leaned forward and gave Jack a small kiss.

"Thank you." She said before walking to join the others.

"Hate to break the moment." Lucy said with a small smirk "but we have got a tidy up to do. Loads of bodies, or rather not bodies to deal with. Deaths to explain and Carys to take home once we're sure she's clean."

"Good point" Jack immediately became all business again. "Tosh, Gwen go find out what's happened here. Owen, go get the medical kit and scanner from the SUV - check Carys is ok. Lucy, can I have a word?"

Lucy nodded and everyone got to their jobs.

"How much of this did you know?" Jack asked, jumping straight to the point.

"How much would you hate me if I said all of it?" Lucy asked, slightly uncomfortably. Jack sighed, and pinched his nose.

"At some point you and I need to work out the rules for dealing with this."  
"I agree" Lucy said "I mean I did what I could but... Jack I have a request?"  
"What's that?"  
"Can you not Retcon Carys?" She asked and Jack looked surprised so she ploughed ahead. "It might make a difference now, but it might still not stop the nightmares or the fear, and there's nothing to say that the next time she has sex she won't remember everything. Forgetting it isn't going to help, talking about it is."  
"Who's she going to talk to? You?"

"Well why not? I'll listen and I know about aliens and what's happened to her. If she remembers in the future she's just going to get shipped off to the loony bin."

Owen came back in and started running the scanner over Carys body.

"She's clean." He announced soon after and Jack nodded.

"Ok." he looks and Lucy and nods, "ok - she's your responsibility."

"Thank you" Lucy said seriously.

Carys moaned and started to move from where she was lying on the floor. They could tell she was about to wake up.

"Owen, you help her outside."Jack ordered, "Lucy, the Retcon is in the glove compartment, you only need one tablet. It's your job to make sure she gets home safely with this incident behind her." Lucy nodded.

"Understood. Am I ok to go home after or do I need to go back to the hub?"  
"Go home." Jack laughed, "It's been a long day."  
"We've been working for around 18 hours" Lucy agreed, "Not quite what you had planned for Gwen's first day."  
"Not exactly." Jack agreed, "We'll do that on Monday when I expect you in bright and early."

"See you Jack." Lucy smiled "I'll get a taxi to Carys', instead of driving the SUV." She left the room, Owen followed carrying Carys.

Lucy made a point of getting the Retcon out of the SUV as Carys was just waking up.

"Where am I?" She asked scared, before noticing she was just outside of her place of work, "who are you?"

"Think about it." Lucy said sadly "You'll remember."

Lucy could see the exact moment where Carys remembered and realised what had happened. Her eyes widened and the fear in them was palpable. She curled into herself and Lucy grabbed her arms.

"Hey." She said softly, "it's fine. What do you feel?"

"Human." Carys breathed. "I can't feel it anymore."

"We got it out of you," Lucy smiled at her, "It's dead and you're free."

"But... I remember... it's really gone?"

"Really really." Lucy looked up from Carys at Owen, "Can you get us a taxi? I think Carys would like to go home, providing that's ok with you, doctor."

Carys looked up at Owen her eyes begging him to say that was fine, all she wanted to do was hug her dad and have him tell her everything was going to be fine. Owen nodded, "I'm prescribing bed rest as well as some strong pain killers and some sleeping tablets. Did you get them out of the front of the SUV Lucy?" He asked and she knew he was talking about the Retcon.

"Yup." Lucy nodded, "I'll make sure Carys gets what she needs."

"Then I see no problem with her going home. I'll flag down a taxi for you."

Lucy checked that the taxi driver couldn't hear everything she was saying before turning serious as she talked to Carys.

"We need to talk about what happened. I know you don't want to but this is important, you've got a choice to make and you have to do it now."  
Carys' face paled "What?"

"I can give you a tablet so you don't remember the past 48 hours, it'll just feel like an extreme hangover. However that doesn't mean you'll never remember, you might still have nightmares and one day it might come back in bits and pieces. Or you can go home with my personal number and all your memories intact, you will definitely have nightmares and flashbacks but you'll be able to talk to someone about them, someone who might not know exactly what you are going through but who knows about aliens and about what happened."

"If I take the tablet what happens if I remember?" Carys asked

"We can have you down on the system as someone who needs to be watched. That will just simply mean that if anything unusual happens it'll be flagged up, if you need psych help I can get that as something to be flagged up as well so we can try to get you pointed towards someone who knows about this stuff. But that probably won't happen, and I have no idea how much you'll remember or even if you will at all. It's quite possible that this will just be a bad dream and a hangover, but it is also possible that next time you have sex you'll remember everything or at least enough to mentally scar you."

"And you'll help me?"

"I'll do what I can." Lucy replied, she could see what answer Carys was leaning to and was glad of it. "If that means you calling me at all hours of the night with nightmares, that's fine. If you are calling because you want to talk about it, great. If you are calling because you need someone on the other end of the phone to talk about nonsense while you try to get your head straight I can do that as well. I'm not a professional in this area Carys, I've only been in the job a couple of months. But I will help you through this in any way I can."

"Ok." Carys nodded, "I won't take the tablets. What are you going to tell my dad?"

"As close to the truth as possible." Lucy said slightly less seriously, "You were involved in an incident where you saw people die, you were watching from the sidelines unable to escape but unfortunately everything else is confidential and that if you want to move away from Cardiff we can do that by putting the pair of you in witness protection or by making sure you have the money to live somewhere else. And that is an option Carys, if you can't be in Cardiff anymore we can move you."

Carys nodded in understanding, she gazed out of the window at Cardiff city passing by.

"Can we not talk about it anymore?"  
"No problem." Lucy smiled, "Legolas or Aragorn? And I'm talking the characters and not the actors. Cause Legolas with his bow is damn nice on the eye but I find there is just something about Aragorn's mystery and his dark hair that makes him sexy and gives him the edge for me."

Carys laughed,

"I agree Aragorn is nicer, I don't trust a guy who cares more about his hair than I do."

"He's too much off a pretty boy I admit." Lucy said glad to see Carys was engaging in the conversation. "But I do love the bow as a weapon, but then I love swords as well... and those blue eyes of his..."

"They are very blue."

The taxi pulled up outside Carys house, Lucy paid him and got out with her. "I'll see you in and talk to your dad. You are going to get through this Carys, I promise."  
Carys nodded and Lucy could see her readying herself, she knocked on the door and within seconds her father opened it. Carys stared at him before sobbing and launching herself into his arms.

Lucy showed Mr Jones her ID over Carys' shoulder as he hugged his daughter and held her tightly. "Can I come in Mr Jones? There are some things we need to discuss. Your daughter is in no trouble but she's had a bit of a scare."

Her father nodded and moved out of the doorway, Carys still clinging on to him, Lucy walked into the house and shut the door behind her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed Day 1. I'm currently busy writing NaNo and having a lot of fun, even though it's hard work.**

**Next week is my own original chapter which looks at the consquences of Day 1 and Gwen deciding that she does want to stay.**

**I'm also really looking forward to the new and last Doctor Who episode on Saturday.**

**Don't forget to review, because they make me happy. And happiness leads to me writing lots and lots.**

**Rea**


	7. Chapter 7 - Rules of Torchwood

**AN: Enjoy a short original chapter.**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 6th September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

The day after the 'sex gas incident', as it quickly became known, Lucy gestured for Gwen to join her on the shooting range. Gwen followed her warily, they were silent until Lucy sat down at her new desk - which Ianto had somehow found the time to sort out.

"After yesterday" Lucy said getting straight to the point. "do you still want to stay in Torchwood?"

"Yeah." Gwen breathed in response. "I'd been thinking about it all of last night - I think I worried Rhys. But I do, I want to stay. People might have died but we saved Carys, it was worth it."

"18" Lucy said and Gwen just stared at her so Lucy expanded on her point "18 people died because you broke the ship and let the creature out. That's one hell of a first day"  
"It was an accident." The Welshwoman tried to defend herself "And Jack said one of the soldiers probably..."

"Except they didn't and you did. Can you really stay in Torchwood knowing that those 18 deaths are your fault and that they are just the beginning? Because if you stay, there is no doubt about it; the continual list of people you couldn't save. The names you will never forget and the names you wished you knew. This job will break you - it breaks everyone - what's important is how you get back together. I'm not telling you this to scare you." She continued in a softer voice, seeing the fear and anger in her co-worker's eyes. "It's important that you know and understand what this job entails. You accepted Jack's offer without knowing what it meant and now you do. Do you still want to work at Torchwood? Don't answer straight away, think about it" She passed Gwen a pair of ear protectors. "I'm going to shoot while you think, come and interrupt when you know the answer."

Lucy got out of her chair and walked into the main range, grabbing the rifle and made a mental note of the time, 9:23. She put her own ear protectors on and started to shoot.

It was only when she registered a body next to her that she stopped. Gwen smiled at her and nodded, Lucy looked at the clock again; 10:01. "Good, you actually thought about it."

"You in?" Lucy said dissembling the rifle and starting to clean it out.

"I'm in."

"Right. You've got to go see Owen. You're due a medical. Patient/Doctor confidentiality still applies to us even though we regularly break data protection acts as well as other things. So Owen will be the only one to know anything unless he feel that you are not safe in the field and then you has to tell Jack that you are grounded although he won't tell him why. Welcome to Torchwood Agent Cooper."

Lucy smiled and stuck out her hand, Gwen shook it "Thank you Agent Smith."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What are you doing?" Gwen asked once Owen finally released her from his clutches and completed her medical. Lucy absent-mindedly noticed that Gwen's hadn't taken as long as hers had - although Owen did have access to her previous doctors records and wasn't checking for differences between the biology of the two worlds. She made a mental note to speak to the doctor about that as he hadn't brought it up again apart from the 'ahhhh' sounds he had originally made and continued to make every month when he insisted in removing more of her blood.

"Writing the rules of Torchwood for you." Lucy replied to Gwen. "I've also put a copy of the handbook on your desk. Technically you need to read that before you can go out on the field. But Jack doesn't care when you read it, as long as you do it in your first month. Plus there's the personnel file you need to fill out."

Gwen looked over and saw a fairly thick book and some paper on top of her otherwise empty desk. It hadn't taken long for Lucy to clear it out for the newest agent to use, although Lucy hadn't cleared the locked cupboard yet.

"So you're giving me rules on top of the handbook?"

"Hmm..." Lucy nodded biting the end of the Biro as she thought. "These are more rules for Torchwood 3 and the hub and not Torchwood in general. The handbook is standard issue for all agents but written by 1."

"1 is London right?" Gwen asked trying to remember what Jack said

"Yeah, but I wouldn't mention it around here." Lucy quickly scribbled another rule down. "Jack was never their biggest fan, and then they caused the Battle of Canary Wharf to happen. Plus Ianto worked there before he transferred here after the battle."

"What rules have you got so far?" Owen asked walking over to join them.  
"Just the bog standard ones" Lucy replied, "I figure we can add to them when needed."  
She started to read from the list in front of her.

"Rule 1. Don't mess with the rift.

Rule 2. - Don't touch the coffee machine. Not only is it Ianto's and sacred but if you break it we'll be on decaf or worse - Starbucks!"

Owen, Tosh and Lucy shivered in disgust at the thought of being denied Ianto's precious coffee.

"Rule 3. Rule number 1 - The Doctor lies."

"Sorry." Owen interrupted "Rule 3 is rule number 1 and about someone who is technically Torchwood's number 1 enemy but as far as you and Jack are concerned is our best friend?"

"Yup" Lucy nodded, "Got a problem with that?"

"No, I just... I wanted to check."

"Rule 4 - no taking any of the big weapons. They are my toys."  
"Have you actually used the word toys?" Tosh asked, she stopped pretending to not listen and span her chair round to face them.

"Err..." Lucy glanced down to look, "yeah?" She looked slightly awkward before shrugging

"Only in Torchwood could those weapons be called toys." Tosh sighed, "and only you. What else have you got?"  
"Rule 5 - No bringing people back to life."

"Understandable, what with what it did to Suzie." Gwen agreed

"Rule 6 - If you ever accidentally knock out a plug to any computer - especially Tosh's - then the excuse 'we were having fun, lighten up a bit' is not good enough."

Tosh frowned at the idea of anyone knocking out the plug to any of her computers and Owen could see that the comment was directed at him.

"Rule 7 - If you ever get Tosh angry enough that she starts speaking Japanese, you're on your own. None of us are helping you although if you give us money we will go and get the chocolate cake while you get on your knees and beg"

Tosh blushed slightly at the reference to the last time she had properly lost her temper, but didn't say anything else.

"Rule 8 - Never ask Jack why, or for proof behind any of his stories." Lucy looked up, "That's all I've got so far. Like I said I figure we can add to them as and when we need to. Oh Rule 9 - If the Doctor ever does appear don't arrest him."

"Rule 10" Owen said "listen to the medic." Lucy scribbled it down,

"What about you Tosh anything you want to add?"

Tosh thought about it for a minute before taking the pen and paper and saying as she wrote.

"Rule 11 - Lucy is not allowed near any technology without my prior permission and cheat sheet." Lucy laughed.

"I'm not that bad."

"Yes." Owen said with a laugh as well, "you really are."  
"I can work a computer to do all the normal stuff." She pointed out, "just not Torchwood normal"

"Which is why I need to write you a cheat sheet for everything."

"Well in which case." Lucy took the paper back and wrote on it again. "Rule 12 - if you want to use anything more than the standard stun gun and a .45 in the field you need to train for at least an hour a week with that weapon, and log it as well. If the training isn't logged I'm not letting you take it out of the hub."  
"Don't get too big for your boots, you're not weapons specialist yet." Jack said as he walked over to join them. He had seen them all talking and wanted to know what was going on.

"I've got one month left." Lucy replied, "That rule can just be suspended until then. Unless you think I should write it off all together?"

"The rule's fine I just don't want you getting too big headed." Jack laughed. "Rule 13 - No taking alien items out of the hub." Lucy diligently wrote it but still complained.

"That's in the handbook. These are supposed to be things that aren't but that people should know."  
"It's always worth reminding people." Jack said sternly.

"Rule 14" Lucy said thinking of another one, "say please and thank you to Ianto. He doesn't have to make you coffee so nicely, at all hours of the day and night."

"He's the tea-boy." Owen complained loudly.

"He's a human being." Lucy countered, "Manners never hurt anyone and like I said just because he has to make the coffee doesn't mean it needs to be anything other than mud."

"Are you finished for now?" Jack asked and both Lucy and Owen knew that he meant both the argument, which was becoming more and more common, and the list of rules.

"Seems good enough." Tosh shrugged, "as long as we can add to it."

"I'll stick it up on the wall on the inside of the tourist office, that way you see it every morning and you can see if anyone has added anything to it." Jack took the list off Lucy. "Owen, you can get started on the research on the weevils, Tosh you've got your rift prediction program to work on, Lucy you can continue on your weapons research project and Gwen I need you to fill out paperwork. Lucy have you got her shooting yet?"

Lucy shook her head, "I thought you might want to do that."

"Brilliant" Jack grinned at them, "Gwen once you've read through the handbook and settled in a bit more I'll get you on the range. Now you've all finished writing rules for this place perhaps you could get on with your jobs."

They nodded and went back to their desks, Lucy unlocked the cabinet she had put the information in that she was researching and carried it down to her new desk. Ianto promised her that within a week or so he would have set up a small office separate from the range so she could work while the others were busy using it.

Lucy smiled to herself, turned on her ipod, grabbed the file on the top and got to work.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Only just realised it was Friday so panic update. Hope you enjoy this short chapter about how the team work and interact.**

**Please don't forget to review, I know people are reading it.**

**Rea**


	8. Chapter 8 - Ghost Machine

**A/N: Enjoy Ghost Machine**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 10th September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Jack called Lucy over to his office, she shrugged and put down the file she was writing up again - water damage and bad handwriting was a terrible mix - and walked over to his office. Jack shut the door behind her.

"What's up?" Lucy asked slightly worried, Gwen had been with the team for just over a week now and although she was still technically the Welshwoman's mentor she had taken a step or two back.

"Ianto's been making me do my paperwork. It's a pain in the ass but I have found out some interesting things," Jack started "for example it turns out you are due a holiday. You've been working for Torchwood for three months and have only had 8 days off in the entire time you've been here."

Lucy shrugged uncomfortably,

"It's not the kind of job that lends itself to days off and I always seem to have stuff to do. I'm training, or working on my personal projects or we've got an emergency and I'm in the field, or its just normal stuff with the weevils or..."

"You need to take some time off." Jack insisted her as he interrupted. "I understand why you don't want it, because if you take time off you'll be a normal person and it'll hit home that you are in a different universe."

"I know I'm in a different universe." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "Living in a TV show does make it rather obvious, although we've only had two episodes so far."

"That's something I want to discuss as well." Jack agreed, "But you're straying from the point. You've been displaced and you are burying yourself in work so you don't have to think about it. Unfortunately for you I'm not going to let you do that any longer. You've got a week of enforced holiday and UNIT are expecting you this weekend before you take it."

"Why am I going to UNIT?" Lucy asked worried, "They haven't found out about me have they? They don't want to run tests or try and find out the future?"

"Nothing like that." Jack said calming her down. "It's just they've got some different alien weapons to us and as you are Torchwood's official weapons specialist I thought you might want to go have a look. They're giving you free access to their shooting range for 48 hours." Lucy's eyes widened as she realised what Jack was saying.

"I got the promotion, but I haven't done everything you wanted me too yet."

"You deserve it, just keep working on it, we both know you'll get there." Jack laughed, "Although I'm not sure what the Doctor will say, you idolise him and yet you not only work for Torchwood but you are our weapons specialist as well."

"He'd look at me disappointingly and make some disparaging comment, probably switch my gun for a banana." Lucy replied automatically "And then he'd find a great injustice that needed fixing and forget all about it, until I saved his life with one of my weapons."

"Probably" Jack agreed, "You sound like you've thought about it."

"I've just watched far too much Doctor Who." Lucy countered. "So am I really getting to play with UNIT's toys?"

"You'll be supervised obviously, it'll be minimal but it will be there." He said, "Go have fun. I realised this was the only way I could make you take longer off work."

"You do know Ianto is due a holiday as well." Lucy said suddenly realising something, "Since I've started he's taken less than me off. He just fixes the paperwork to look like he has. It's not like any of you guys notice him - he just blends into the background."

"I'll look into it." Jack promised. He poured himself a drink and spoke again, "But before you get ready for your time off there is something else I want to talk about - your knowledge." Lucy nodded.

"I knew you would want this conversation at some point."

"I've not pressed you on how much you know or when you know it but we need to lay down some rules. For a start when are you going to tell Gwen?" Lucy shrugged looking everywhere apart from at Jack.

"I dunno. I don't really want to. I mean it doesn't make any difference because I'm not stupid enough to use this information to try and change everything and I like the fact that she doesn't know, makes me feel a bit normal."

"She needs to be told at some point."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Fine! But not for a while yet, see if she can work it out - or at least work out that something is wrong. I just don't see why she has to know."

"Because no matter how much you may or may not like her she is your team mate and you have to work together in the field and therefore you have to be able to trust each other."

"Ok, I'll tell her on election day, end of series 1. Will that do?"

"It'll do for now. That's _the_ latest you can tell her." Jack countered, "I'm not happy about it but if you don't tell her after that I will. You've got till the new Prime Minister steps into office."

"You'll have other things to worry about." Lucy muttered remembering how the Master was going to treat the immortal captain throughout the year that never was. On election day Captain Jack Harkness would be more concerned with the Doctor, the Master and Martha Jones than Lucy needing to tell Gwen the truth.

"I don't want to know. What we need to do is work out how we deal with an episode?"  
"Well I'm doing my best not to change anything, I could have said I knew the name of the human the sex gas had possessed and that would have sped everything up. We would have found Carys that night and could have potentially worked out a way to save her without her having killed anyone else."  
"So why didn't you?"

"Because I don't know that impact that will have on the world! I'm not the Doctor, I can't see what is a fixed point and what isn't. He said that the worst thing is an ordinary human being alive when they shouldn't be - dammit the reapers nearly destroyed all of time when Rose saved her dad. So I figure the best thing to do is to act as though every episode is a fixed point in time."

"_Can_ you do that?" Jack asked, he had to be sure that nothing was going to go seriously wrong.

"I can do my damned best." She said harshly before sagging slightly. "I don't know what I can and can't do, so I figure it's best to act as though I can't do anything. It's not as though I can just ask him."

They sat in silence for a while, both thinking about the Doctor and trying to guess what he would say about this situation.

Lucy was the first to speak, "So, I'm guessing that as I've got this promotion and you are sending me off to play at UNIT you have no plans to get rid of me; due to the circumstances, I mean."  
"Nothing at present" Jack smirked, "Just try not to destroy all of time and everything will be fine."  
"I'll try." Lucy replied, "Sooo... UNIT? What do they know about me?"

"They have your official existence but nothing about how you appeared here. That's not leaving Torchwood - ever."

"Thank you." She spoke sincerely. Lucy knew that although the Doctor preferred UNIT over Torchwood - mainly because of the Brig and that he had worked for them in their golden years - UNIT was still not above the idea of locking people away forever or running tests on people with 'abnormalities'. She also knew that she would be considered an 'abnormality' and her knowledge a potential threat.

"No one hurts any member of my team apart from me." Jack said equally seriously but with a twinkle in his eye. "Anyway, the minute you leave this office you are officially on holiday. UNIT will be picking you up are 6am on Friday and give you lodging until they drop you back off at 9pm Sunday evening. And then you can come back to work on Wednesday."

Lucy made to complain but Jack just looked at her and she knew that she wasn't going to win. "Fine" She sighed. "I'll go grab my bag. See you in a week."  
"Have fun at UNIT and don't let them push you around. You're Torchwood's weapons specialist, remind them of that every now and again - you have just as much right to be there as they do if not more."

"See you Jack." Lucy said with a laugh, "I'll make sure to send you a picture of their faces when I beat them in a shooting competition."

Lucy walked out of the office with a smile, Ianto was waiting near her desk with a mug of coffee. "Wasn't sure if it was good or bad news and thought you might need a pick-me-up." He said as he passed her the mug.

"Thanks Yan." She replied as she started to tidy her stuff away. "Mixture of good and bad - I'm on enforced holiday leave. Jack seems to think I spend too much time here."  
"You do." Ianto interrupted wryly. "Almost as much as me, and I have a reason to be spending my spare time here; you don't."

"Yeah well, he's kicking me out for a week, but I get to spend the weekend at UNIT playing on their range with all their lovely toys. It's only fitting for Torchwood's weapons specialist to have an idea of what they have and how to use it."  
"Congratulations." He said, understanding that this meant that she got the promotion she wanted

"Thanks." Lucy grinned, "Feels like I actually belong here."

"You've always belonged here."

"You know what I mean."

"Oi Tea-boy!" Owen called over "Stop gossiping and come and help me over here. I need another pair of hands."  
"Duty calls. I'll see you later, I'll walk home and leave you the car" Lucy said as she grabbed her bag and left the hub. She spent some time just enjoying the view of Cardiff bay on a normal morning - cold and windy and still somehow beautiful - before walking back to the flat that she and Ianto shared.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy walked back into the tourist office with Ianto a week later, looking forward to going back to work. Her weekend at UNIT had given her some new ideas of training practice and competitions between the team to make sure that their skills didn't drop.

Ianto had informed her of the incident with the ghost-machine that happened while she wasn't there. Although she wanted to come in and help, Jack had Ianto tell her that she still wasn't allowed into work and he would get her arrested for breaking into government property if she tried and she knew he wasn't joking.

As she went to walk into the hub Lucy spotted a new addition to her list of rules, written in Jack's handwriting.

_'Rule 15 - NEVER press flashing buttons on alien technology if I haven't cleared it for use_

_'Rule 16 - You MUST have 1 day off for every 7 days working (Lucy and Ianto this is for you), end of the world excepting.'_

She laughed at the idea of Jack holding back on his rant to Owen and just scribbling on the list instead, she took a pen out of her pocket and wrote another couple of rules she had thought of while she was on 'holiday'

_'Rule 17 - NO PLAYING WITH TIME TRAVEL_

_Rule 17a - Unless you are with the Doctor in which case have fun but leave us a note to let us know where you are going'_

Ianto smirked when he saw what she added. "You ready to get back to work again?" he asked as they walked down the corridor between the tourist office and the hub

Lucy nodded, "You know I am. Although I am kinda glad I missed that episode. It's fairly dull."

"I doubt Owen or Gwen thought that."

"Oh well." She shrugged, "They're hardly going to hold it against me, it's not the worst this series - that's later on. But come on you have to admit from the point of view of a story it's not the most exciting. You went to _Splott_ \- or Sploe however you want to pronounce it. Also I know you Ianto Jones, you've lived in Cardiff all your life, you call it Splott just like everyone else, you just wanted to annoy them." Ianto just smirked.

"I will admit that it doesn't make the best story."

"But you still make the best coffee and you want to make it for me now as a 'welcome back to work' present." Lucy said jokingly

"I make a coffee as soon as I get in anyway. And it's not like I haven't been making it at home"

"It's not the same though."

The cog door opened and neither were surprised to see that apart from Jack they were the first ones in.

"Yes I'll make you some coffee" Ianto sighed, he knew that Lucy wasn't going to let it go. "You go and fill Jack in and get the official story and I'll prepare my best coffee for you."

"Thanks Yan." Lucy grinned as she walked over to Jack's office, "see you in a bit."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I decided to leave Ghost Machine because it's an important mmoment for Gwen and I couldn't work out how to do it with Lucy in. It was too Gwen-centric.**

**But next week is part 1 of 2 for Cyberwoman and Lucy makes a BIG impact in that.**

**Please Review *puppy dog eyes***

**Rea**


	9. Chapter 9 - Cyberwoman, Part 1

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 25th September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all got back to the hub without a problem, Jack giving orders as they got in so they could find out about this 'supposed UFO', Lucy pulled Jack aside.

"I know this one, and you're going to hate me and I'm sorry in advance. I'm really sorry."

Jack looked at her quizzically but didn't say anything as at that minute the power started to drain.

"What's that?" Gwen asked.

Tosh looked at her computer for the answer, "Internal power drain."

"What's causing it?"

"Something big to drain that amount of power." Jack said seriously "Tosh, run a system diagnostic."

Ianto turned round and Lucy could see the worry in his face.

"Actually." He said and she winced, was she the only one who could hear that Ianto was lying? It seemed so obvious to her. "We've been having generator problems all evening. I was down there earlier. A couple of bits of cabling has come loose, thought I'd fixed it. Let me have another look."

"Fine go check" Jack replied and Ianto walked off to deal with it. Jack looked at Lucy who steadfastly refused to meet his eyes and had sat at her desk pretending to start to get on with some work.

"Want some help?" Gwen offered but Lucy spoke before he could.  
"It's ok, I'll come help you Ianto."

"It's fine." He tried to shove her off

"I know, I'll still come help though." She jumped up from her chair and followed him as quickly as she could, she knew that if she stayed in the main area it wouldn't take long before Jack could get the whole truth from her.

They ran down to where they knew Lisa was and Lucy flinched at the sight of Dr. Tenzaki on the floor.

"What happened?" Ianto gasped

"His upgrade failed." The cyberwoman replied and Lucy knew that although there was the slightest possibility of curing her before, Lisa was now completely gone.

"Was it an accident?" Ianto asked before he realised what had been said, "Tell me you didn't do this."

"I wanted to repay him for helping me, by removing the weaknesses of his humanity."

"I'll deal with the body." Lucy said pulling off her hoodie and throwing it into the corridor. "This way they won't see the blood on my t-shirt and these jeans are already blood stained. You talk to Lisa." She grabbed the legs of the body and pulled it towards one of the side rooms before running off to another room to get a body bag.

Ianto joined her as she was just finishing dealing with it.

"She didn't mean to do it, it's post-traumatic." He said in defence of what used to be his girlfriend.

"Ianto." Lucy said quietly, "She tried to upgrade him, he would have been screaming to be released. I don't think it's something you can do by accident."

"What do you know?" he replied angrily.

"I don't" She tried to pacify him, hating seeing him like this and hating the lie as she said it. "Listen I'll go clean up the blood from the floor, you just finish up here and pray that you are right."

"I am right."

"I hope so." And with that she left taking a mop and quickly getting the new blood off the floor so it obvious, as she did so the light's started flickering again. She could hear the rest of the team talking in her ear, but that soon died again and she remembered that the power drain was blocking the headset signal too.

Lucy quickly put the mop away and walked back down the corridor to get her hoodie, only to find Owen holding it.

"Ah."

"I'm sure you've got a brilliant reason as to why your top is covered in blood. When it wasn't about 5 minutes ago."

She shook her head, unsure of what to say but knowing that they needed to get out of the corridor.

"We should go."

"We're going to see what's causing the drain and you are going to stay there and wait for Jack to come down so you can tell him the whole story. Actually," he thought better of it, "you can open the door and go in first."

Lucy sighed and opened the door the three of them walking in with their guns held high.

"What is it?" Gwen asked as Owen shook his head in disbelief and anger.

"NO NO NO. These things brought down Torchwood 1, they were all destroyed." He turned his gun on Lucy, "What the hell is it doing in our basement?"

"Just tell me what it does." Gwen said

"It's what's left of a cyberman conversion unit." Lucy said quietly, "a modified one but one nonetheless."

Jack suddenly started speaking in their ears.

"If I don't hear something soon I'm coming down there."

"Jack, it's Gwen. The comms dropped out. We're back online now."

"Any sign of Ianto or Lucy?"

"No sign of Ianto, but we found Lucy covered in blood and parts of a cyber conversion unit fully powered up and working. A modified one apparently" Owen hissed

"I want you back up here immediately. Lucy you'd better have a damn good explanation for this and telling me sorry half an hour ago does not count."

"We still haven't found..." Owen started but the CyberLisa stopped his thought in its tracks by hitting him on the back of the head.

Lucy pulled her gun out and pointed it at Lisa, Gwen did the same thing and spoke to Jack telling him it was a code 0 – invasion. Lucy decided to try and speak to Lisa, it recognised Ianto it might recognise her.

"Hi Lisa," She tried, "it's Lucy remember do you remember me? We came to see if you were ok."

"Lucy" The cold electric voice said, "Ianto's friend?"

"That's it, I'm glad you remember me. Ianto's told me so many stories, like when you had to share that sleeping bag while you were camping. How about you just let us go?"

"Lucy what the hell are you doing?" Gwen hissed

"Trying to save your life." She replied, "I may not like you but I didn't think you wanted to end up on the conversion table, and I don't really either."

Lisa walked forward and Gwen spoke, "We don't mean you any harm, but come any closer and I'll shoot." The cyberwoman just took a step forward and knocked the gun out of Gwen's hand and held Lucy by her neck.

"Friend of Ianto I shall thank you by changing you first, you will be like me."

"Gwen for fucks sake run." Lucy hissed as Lisa threw her into the conversion unit. Lisa turned it on and Lucy screamed at the sight of the knives above her head, she shut her eyes but she could still hear the sounds and feel pain from the amount of electricity needed to run the table. She couldn't help but remember that when Lisa had been asked about what she remembered her answer was pain, and she knew that if Jack didn't arrive in time it was only going to get worse.

"Put your hands in the air, turn around and face me." She heard Jack shout, "You're a girl." He added surprised, Lucy opened her eyes to see him and then shut them again instantly.

Lisa stepped forward and Lucy could hear her walk away and an argument between Jack, Gwen and Ianto.

"FOR FUCKS SAKE IANTO SHE THREW ME IN HERE BECAUSE SHE RECOGNISED ME AND WANTED ME TO BE LIKE HER. SHUT THIS DAMN THING OFF BEFORE I AM!" She shouted causing the argument to stop. Gwen tried shooting the control unit but it failed so Jack ordered Tosh to turn the whole power system off. Lucy sighed with relief when it worked and gingerly got out of the table.

"Lucy and Ianto, hands above your head and walk in front of me. Give Gwen your gun." Jack ordered.

"For pity's sake Jack." Gwen tried, "Lucy's just got out of this thing."

"That's an order!"

Lucy gently kicked her gun across the floor to Gwen, it had fallen when Lisa had picked her up and moved her hands above her head like Jack had ordered. Ianto threw his gun to the ground and did the same. They both walked in silence down the corridor side by side.

Owen had woken up by this point and had his gun trained on Lucy while, Jack's was trained on Ianto.

"What?" Tosh asked as she saw them walk up.

Lucy gave her a sad smile and got onto her knees in front of Jack as he ordered them too.

"Did you know that thing was down there?" Jack asked them both.

"I put her down there." Ianto said.

"Yes." Lucy said simply.

"You hid a Cyberman within Torchwood and you didn't tell us?" Jack's gun was now at Ianto's forehead. "What else are you keeping from us?"

"Like you care." Ianto replied and Lucy could hear that he'd almost completely given up. "I clear up your shit. No questions asked and that's the way you like it. When did you last ask me anything about my life?" Jack lowered his gun and put the safety back on. "Her name is Lisa." He continued, "She's my girlfriend."

"Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you" Gwen tried.

Lucy was going to stay quiet but she couldn't help herself. "This is Torchwood Gwen. Things like Lisa are what we're supposed to get rid of."

"Why would I tell you about her? Lucy already knew it wasn't like I'd told her."

"A little loyalty perhaps?" Owen offered

"My loyalty's to her." Ianto replied "She worked for Torchwood, she was caught up in battle. I owe it to Lisa, we owe it to her to find a cure."

"Ianto believe me there is no cure. Those who are converted stay that way, your girlfriend isn't the exception" Jack said,

"You can't know that for sure."

"Look," Jack sighed, "you need to know what is happening here because this is where these things start. Small decisions that become mass slaughter. These creatures take a foothold by exploiting human weakness, then they take a base, rebuild their forces, and before you know it the cyber race is spreading out across the universe. Erasing worlds, assimilating populations, all because of the tiny beginnings here." He looked at Lucy, "and Lucy will already know this."

"No." Ianto looked at Lucy who hung her head, "You said..."

"I said there may be a smallest possibility and it would be stupidly difficult but that I would help you in any way I could." She said quietly before looking up at him "Ianto..."

"I trusted you." He said angrily before standing up "You're not listening any of you, the conversion was never completed."

"There is no turning back for her now, she already tried to convert Lucy. Do you think she's just going to stop there? She's a cyberman, cyberwoman, there is no turning back – not now"

"I'm not giving up on her. I love her, can you understand that Jack? Haven't you ever loved anyone?"

"Ianto please" Lucy said quietly from the floor, where she was still sitting on her knees with her hands behind her head.

"You lied to me." Ianto hissed, "You said you didn't know anything but all this time. I don't want to talk to you and when this is over you need to find somewhere else to live."

"I'm sorry." Lucy said again, "I had to try and help. I wanted it to work, I thought maybe with two of us..."

"You lied!" He spat at her and Lucy had no reply to this, it was true so she just hung her head in shame.

Jack walked away and Owen spoke.

"There is no way we are going to get the weapon store open and we can't get down to Lucy's office either."

"It's going to take 6 hours to get the power back online" Tosh added and Jack sighed.

"Let me talk to her. I can still save her, save all of us. She's not a monster" Ianto spoke again, begging to be allowed to give Lisa a second chance.

"Lucy tried that." Gwen said, feeling nothing but pity and fear. They all looked at Lucy who hadn't moved from her position kneeling on the ground.

"She recognised me, and then tried to thank me by converting me." She looked up and caught Jack's eye, he signalled that she should stand up. She got up carefully and walked over to Ianto forcing him to look at her. "Ianto I don't think it's going to work, she may have all her memories but that happens. They know who they were when they were human and the only person I have ever known fight it was Yvonne Heartman – who killed some while in her cyber-form, talking about Queen and Country. I don't know how she did it but she did. The point is, they know who they were and they know they can use it. Lisa's body may be human – mostly – but her mind is all cyber."

"You're still lying" he replied, "that's all you know how to do isn't it. Lie to everyone around you. Does anyone know the truth about you? No one here does, you're just a geek with nothing and no one in this world and nothing to get back to in your original one either. You've got no friends and no family."  
They all knew Ianto had crossed the line and he knew it too the minute he said it but he refused to take it back. Lucy slapped him, hard across the face and hissed back at him.

"I risked everything I have here – and you're right it isn't much – for you and for Lisa even though I knew that it was next to impossible to save her. I could have pretended I simply didn't know and let it happen. But I didn't, I tried to help you because I thought you deserved it. Because you deserve a thank you for putting up with their shit and you need something to remind you that the world has beauty in it as well. I didn't have to help you Ianto Jones but I wanted to. But don't you ever mention my family again. Ever. You have no idea what I've lost, in coming to this world and even before that. Don't you dare to assume anything about me."

Jack moved so as to get between them. "Ok that's enough. Right now we have enough to deal with without fighting between ourselves. Ok?" He looked at both of them and they both nodded.

"Good."

The CyberLisa walked into the main area of the hub and Ianto broke away from the group trying to talk to her. Lucy tried to move to pull him back but Jack stopped her.

"Lisa." He said "It's me."

"Jack let me go." Lucy said struggling in his hold.

"You can't just let him..." Gwen added but he shut them both up with a look, wanting to know what was going to happen.

"The army will be rebuilt from here. This building is suitable."

Jack let Lucy go as he spoke but she was almost frozen to ground in fear.

"Who are you?"

"Human.2"

"No!" Ianto moaned in despair and took another step forward, "Lisa."

Jack ignored him and continued to mock her.

"So how come you look like Human.1?" He asked sarcastically

"I do not understand."

"Look at yourself" He goaded "go ahead."

She turned and looked at her reflection in the glass and Ianto took another step forward, and another.

"Remember Lisa" He continued to try "Remember who you are."

"The upgrade is incomplete"

"You're still human"

"I am..." She struggled to find the word "disgusting."

"Ianto please move." Lucy begged but he just ignored her and continued to walk towards what used to be his girlfriend.

"I have... I am..." CyberLisa – as Lucy has decided to name her – was still struggling to work out what she was. "wrong"

"We can help you." And he took another step, he was now within touching distance and Lucy was now continually muttering under her breath

"...move, come on, move Ianto, for fucks sake move..."

"I must start again. Upgrade properly"

"For God's sake, have you heard yourself?" Another step "Lisa, please. I brought you here to heal you, so we could be together."

She turned to face him.

"Together. Yes. Transplant my brain into your body. The two of us, together, fused. We will be one, complete person. Isn't that what love is?"

"No" Ianto said quietly shaking his head, Lucy and the others could see that he was starting to realise that this wasn't the woman he loved anymore.

"Then we are not compatible." She grabbed him by the throat and threw him onto the floor in the centre of the hub and the circle that the rest of the team had started to make. Guns were once again raised and they were all pointing at CyberLisa. Lucy wiped the tears her eyes and shoved everything apart from anger to the back of her mind – she didn't have the time to be sentimental now, she had a job to do.

Lisa sent a bolt of electricity towards Jack's gun and it travelled up his arm causing him to drop it instantly.

"Code nine manoeuvres – go!" He shouted, they all started to run to their positions, grabbing anything they could use as a weapon but Gwen seemed frozen to the floor in fear, just like Lucy had been. Except Lucy had forced herself to get over it.

"Gwen move" Jack shouted but she didn't.

"Oi Lisa" Owen shouted trying to get her attention, it worked but now Lisa was coming towards Lucy and Owen.

"Well at least we know she still responds to her name" Lucy said sarcastically as the two started to run again towards the office.

"She's coming after us." Gwen said watching from the window.  
"Well there's a surprise." Owen said mockingly  
Could you be any less helpful?" She hissed

"I just helped you escape." Owen retaliated

"Shut up both of you!" Jack shouted and they did, instantly everyone looking to Jack for orders, "Ok this is a fight to the death. We do whatever is necessary to destroy her, ok?" They all nodded and Jack looked straight at Lucy. "OK?"

"Not a problem Jack. She's not human, she might have been once but not anymore."

Jack put something down on the table slid it over to Tosh.

"What's this?"

"Something Suzie scavenged last year. She claimed it could open any lock in 45 seconds. I want you out the exit gates up the emergency stairs to the reception"

"She'll never open that door without power it weighs a ton" Owen said

"Besides, I'm not leaving you here." Tosh argued

"Just do as I say! All of you!" He ran over to the wall, "once in reception, the panel on the wall, pull it out. Take circuit 357 from the main system. Patch it to these. There should be enough power in there for what we need. Once the main circuit goes live, get out. Meet us by the water tower. GO!" Tosh nodded at all of them and gave them a small smile before leaving.

"You three, find anything that vaguely resembles a weapon."

"Autopsy room." Owen suggested, "there should be some lethal stuff there."

"Ok. Lucy, you're going to cover those two. You're the only one with a weapon right now. Understood. Once they've got weapons you join me and we go to Ianto."

"What are you going to do?" Gwen asked

"Buy you some more time." He replied. "Go!"

They ran, Lucy making sure that she was between them and CyberLisa at all times, her gun in her hand with the safety off ready to shoot in an instant. She hadn't killed anything before – not like this – but it didn't matter. While Lisa still looked like that she could cope with it, but Lucy knew it wouldn't last for long and was starting to psyche herself up for what she was going to do later. She had decided how to deal with the cyberwoman when she had first appeared her, but actually having to do it was something completely different.

Lisa came after Jack who had started in their direction.

"I'm sorry for what they did to you. But it all ends here!" he said. Lisa didn't agree and grabbed him by the neck, simultaneously strangling and electrifying him.

"JACK!" Gwen shouted and tried to reach him, Lucy forcibly grabbed her and shoved her back towards Owen.

"You still need to get those weapons. I'm currently the only one with a gun who stands any chance at all." She looked over to Tosh who had stopped what she was doing. "Tosh. You need to get to the reception, whatever you hear happening down here keep moving and don't look back."

Tosh nodded and opened the door and started to run, quickly shutting the door behind her. She steadfastly followed Jack's orders and Lucy's reminder – not looking back at any point, scared that if she did she would stop.

Jack breathed and stood up.

"How did he survive that?" Owen asked still holding Gwen back. For a moment he had almost forgotten about Jack and his ability, adrenaline did weird things to the mind.

"Not now Owen." Lucy replied, "You need weapons." Both Gwen and Owen nodded and ran into the med area, trying to find anything that would help.

"Is that all you got?" Jack asked. "I'm not so easily deleted." In response Lisa just did the same thing, once more sending him to the ground.  
Lisa started to walk away and Lucy knew it was up to her, she had to give the others time.

"Lisa!" She shouted before CyberLisa could attempt to open the door and follow Tosh. "Come on, it's me. Lucy with the music." The cyberwoman turned to face her instead and she shouted down towards the autopsy room. "Err... you two either need to hurry up or hide. And quick. I'll try and distract her. I know this place, she doesn't."

"Don't be stupid Lucy" Owen replied. "She'll kill you."

"Yeah I worked that bit out thanks." Lucy gave a harsh laugh. "You two need to hide, I'll err..." She shot a couple of time at Lisa but it only slowed her down. "Sod it. I'm hiding too."

She ran down to join them and watched as they climbed into one of the body storage cupboards. "Keep your guns trained on the door." She said to them.  
"Yeah, I have been here longer than you. "Owen replied "I do have a bit of understanding of how these things work. I was here while Torchwood 1 collapsed."  
"Good for you. We can discuss all this later but right now Jack named me as your cover so that's what I'm going to do." She climbed into the one next to them "Good luck"  
"You too" Gwen said and they both shut the door.

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: So here is the first half of cyberwoman. This was the first episode of Lucy I ever wrote (two and a half years ago), I hope you enojoyed.**

**Please don't forget to review, I respond to each one personally.**

**Rea**


	10. Chapter 10 - Cyberwoman, Part 2

**Welcome to Part 2 of Cyberwoman.**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

Lucy laid there in silence, trying to make her breathing as quiet as possible. All she could think about was Ianto's face when he found out that she had been lying to him and the despair when he knew that he couldn't save the woman she loved.

She would not have been able to say how long she was in the cupboard, waiting in silence, her gun pointed at the door ready to shoot the minute it was opened.

The silence was broken by the sound of a phone ringing. She could hear Owen and Gwen frantically trying to turn it off and the door open next to her. The minute she heard that she also scrambled out keeping her gun pointed at CyberLisa and more specifically the unprotected stomach.

"Turn it off!"

Lisa stalked after Gwen and Owen grabbed a knife from the side.

"Don't you touch her." He hissed, she walked forward to attack him instead and two things happened at once.

Lucy shot Lisa, the bullet going through the revealed flesh on her side, and Owen stabbed her in the stomach.

Lisa stumbled backwards into the wall and Lucy positioned herself between Owen, Gwen and the cyberwoman.

"What the hell was that?" Gwen asked

"What?"

"Snogging me!" She retaliated

"Last kiss for the condemned man." He replied and Lucy could see him give a small shrug out of the corner of her eye. "Little embarrassing given we haven't been killed. What? It's not like I fancy you or anything."

"I was on top of you. I could feel your hard-on" She replied

"Yeah... well you didn't exactly struggle did you?"

"Can you two shut up?" Lucy asked over her shoulder, "Owen don't snog her again she has a boyfriend. Gwen don't respond to his snog, you have a boyfriend. Happy now?"

Before they could respond Ianto ran in, he glared at Lucy who still had her gun trained on Lisa's body.  
"Lisa" he breathed.

"We had no choice Ianto." Owen said seeing that Lucy wasn't going to say anything. "It was kill or be killed"

He refused to look at them but jumped back when Lisa's eyes opened again, Lucy grabbed him and pulled him behind her. "You guys move. NOW! IANTO MOVE! RUN"

They all started to run out of the autopsy room, followed by Lisa who pulled the knife out of her body without any problem.

Jack was also running in the main area and they all moved towards him.

"You should be dead" Owen said

"I'm the stubborn type" He replied, grabbing a wielding torch and some sauce. He turned the torch on and held the flame in front of them.

Lisa continued to walk towards them

"This'll at least give you heart burn." Jack gloated at Lisa

"The power will run out. I can wait." She said in response.

"Jack stop this." Ianto said suddenly and Lucy sighed, she had thought he had worked it out. In fact she knew that he knew they had to kill her but the cyberwoman still had the face and body, at least partially, of the woman he loved. Ianto arguing and fighting against her when she was just trying to help, hurt and Lucy did her best to ignore it. She knew this would happen when she agreed to help and didn't tell him that she knew how it would end, and that it would not be pretty.  
"Give her a chance to surrender, she can stay in the cells. We can reverse it."

"I told you we're past that!" Jack said not turning round, "Hold him back." Owen and Gwen did so whilst Lucy refused to look at him and instead kept her gun poised to shoot. Ianto may not like it and he may always hate her for it, but there was nothing else she could do.

"What are you going to do?" Gwen asked

"You don't want to know." Lucy replied

"Just get Ianto on there and hold him." Jack added before looking at Lucy, "You ok?"

"I'm fine." She replied not letting any emotion into her voice, "Let's just do it."

He threw the sauce over Lisa and the two ran onto the paving slab.

"What is it?"

"BBQ sauce, so she knows what's for dinner" Lucy said void of emotion.

"NO!" Ianto had worked out what was going to happen. "You'll kill her"

"Come on Tosh." Jack mumbled playing with his wrist strap as Myfwany flew in. The slab began to rise and Ianto continued to struggle, Gwen and Owen held him back and Lucy steadfastly refused to look at him or the sight of the pterodactyl eating her dinner.

"You'll kill her. Have some fucking mercy"

"She's already dead." Jack replied and they were soon out in the open.

Tosh ran up to join them, and Lucy got herself ready to do what she had been psyching herself up to do all evening, whatever happened she couldn't let Ianto go back into the hub.

"It worked" Tosh said when she reached them. "What happened?"

"Don't ask" Jack replied as they all caught their breath and tried to start to get over what almost happened.

Ianto turned round and punched Jack.

"You could have saved her" He shouted as Gwen pulled him back, "you're worse than anything down there. One day I'll have the chance to save you and I'll watch you suffer and die. You're worse than any of the monster out there"

"It was the only thing that would stop her" Jack replied angrily "You and Lucy both let this thing free in the hub. But at least she knows that what she did was wrong, she was willing to die to stop her and protect her team-mates. You just continued to put them in danger."

Tosh tried to stop the argument so spoke, Lucy winced at what she was saying.

"Listen when I was in reception I managed to trip the lockdown timer. The power should be coming back on any second. We could get back in."

Ianto started to run and as Lucy was the only one expecting it she was the first one to follow him.

"IANTO!"

They were catching up with him.

"Ianto stop." Jack shouted

"She can't have survived that" Gwen tried.

"I used my initiative" Tosh was apologising. "I'm sorry."

"When I want you to think for yourself, I'll tell you" Jack snapped at her.

"Maybe if you'd told me your plan I wouldn't have done it." Tosh replied, "How was I supposed to know?"

They ran into the tourist office and Ianto pointed the gun he had grabbed from behind the desk at them.

"Ianto don't be stupid." Gwen said

"I've nothing left to lose" He replied and Lucy could feel herself break at that sentence. Ianto truly believed he had lost everything. She was reminded of the worst day in her life, which considering how bad her life had been was saying something.

"There is always something left to lose." Jack said and Lucy agreed with him, you could always find something, even the smallest thing, that you still had. The tiniest part of your life could give you enough hope to keep fighting through the dark.

"I'm going back in to save her." Ianto said "Anyone tries to stop me I'll shoot them."

"Ianto put the gun down" Gwen begged, Jack grabbed the gun and threw it on the floor as he shoved Ianto against the wall, and pointed his gun at Ianto's head.

"You make a threat like that, you'd better be prepared to follow it through. See? You disobey me now, I really will shoot you"

"Get off me." Ianto was struggling in the hold Jack had him in but was unable to get free.

"You want to go back in there? You go back in to finish the job."

Everyone complained at this but jack ignored them, Lucy however just checked her gun. And, upon seeing she had emptied it earlier, took the one off the floor that Jack had taken off Ianto.

"If she's still alive" Jack continued, "you execute her"

He turned Ianto round so he was facing them.

"No way" Ianto said quietly, refusing to let himself cry but they could see that he was breaking.

"You brought this down on us, you hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it's time for you to stand as part of the team."

Lucy knew this was her cue and stepped forward.

"He wasn't the only one to hide her and he's definitely not the only one hiding himself, _Captain_." She said the last word mockingly and from the look on his face she knew he'd understood what she meant. He turned to face her but continued to keep his gun pointed at the Welshman.

"I'll deal with you later." He faced Ianto again, "The girl you loved has gone, your loyalty is to us now."

"He's not going back in there." Lucy said firmly as she took another step forward and was now next to Ianto. "I won't let him."

"He allowed the cybermen to have a foothold in this world again!"

"I know." She was as calm as she possibly could be, "and I know why you hate them more than any other creature in the universe apart from the daleks. I get that. I really do. But look at him Jack, he lost everything in Canary Wharf, everything he ever knew and you lost one person. Just one person who meant as much to you as Lisa does to him. He's not going back in there."

He pointed the gun at her, Gwen stepped forward to try and calm Jack down but he just shrugged her off.

"You do it or I'll execute all three of you myself."

"Ok" Lucy shrugged, and looked straight into Jack's eyes. "I will go in there and deal with whatever is left. But you cannot make Ianto go back in while I am. He will break and you will never fully get him back. Give me half an hour, I'll tidy up as well. Just keep him safe and I'm sorry. Really Jack, I am sorry."

With that she ran down the corridor pressing the button on the way to put the hub back into lock down. She turned to see the team on the other side of the door trying to get her to open it, everyone apart from Jack who just caught her eye and nodded. Lucy knew that it would take Tosh at least ten minutes to undo the lock down from where they were which gave her time to kill... to do what it was that was needed.

Her gun was held tightly in her hands as she walked down the stairs to where she knew Lisa would be.

"LISA!" She called and the take-away girl walked out of the basement. Lucy was suddenly unsure if she would be able to go through with this. Lisa looked human.

"Lucy. It's me, Lisa. I took this body for Ianto so we can be together again." Lucy's gun wavered and she knew Lisa had seen it. "He fought so hard for me so I had to fight for him. We'll be together forever, we can get upgraded together and you can join us."  
"Sorry." Lucy said, her resolve hardening at the word 'upgraded'. Lisa might look human but she wasn't. She pulled the trigger, the girl's body collapsed and she shot again just to make sure.

Now she had killed someone she felt part of her innocence leave for good and knew that there was no going back. Even if she was retconned she would always know there was blood on her hands.

She slid down the wall.

"I'm so so sorry," She swallowed tightly then forced herself to stand up and pulled her ipod out of her pocket.

While it played in her ears she walked up the stairs to get two body bags, one for the girl and one for Lisa, she had to get it done before Ianto saw it – she hadn't been lying. This truly would break him. She was already broken and didn't really exist in this world, Ianto had been brought to breaking point by Torchwood and by life but he could be mended. Jack would be able to mend him but if he saw what CyberLisa had done no matter how hard Jack tried he wouldn't be able to put the pieces back together. He would be destroyed for life even though he would wear a mask so the world never knew. She allowed that thought to overtake her as she got on with what needed to be done.

When the team ran into the hub she had put them into body bags and hidden the second one, she left the body bag with Lisa in by the door with the face still showing. She was dismantling the cyber conversion unit tears streamed down her face as she pulled it apart but she ignored them singing to herself along with the music.

"_...tears and fears and feeling proud_

_To say I love you right out load._

_And dreams and schemes and circus clowns._

_I've looked at life that way._

_But now old friends are acting strange,_

_They shake their heads._

_They say I've changed._

_Well something's lost but something's gained._

_From living every day._

_I've looked at life from both sides now,_

_From win and loose and still somehow_

_Its life's illusions I recall._

_I really don't know life at all..."_ the tears got too heavy to ignore now and she stopped pulling it apart to dry her eyes, before starting to sing again, needing the music to ignore the thoughts running around in her mind, to ignore what she had done.

Ianto went to the open body bag and pulled Lisa close, the words reverberating with him and he held his dead girlfriend. The rest of the team just watched the two knowing that there was nothing else they could have done.

"_I've looked at love from both sides now_

_from give and take and still somehow_

_it's loves illusions I recall_

_I really don't know love._

_Don't know love._

_Don't know love_

_At all"_

Ianto sobbed quietly and somehow that sound got through where the others hadn't, she turned round and spotted them as she pulled the head phones out her ears.

"Jack..."

He looked at her and her tear streamed face and strode foreword pulling her into a tight hug, his anger at them for hiding this dissipating instantly, for now anyway.

"Owen, Gwen can you finish breaking this for me? Tosh can you help Ianto back to his flat? I'll speak to him later." The rest of the team nodded and Ianto was pulled up by the smaller woman, and the two walked out. Jack held her close while Owen and Gwen got to work silently. When she had calmed down enough to talk properly she looked up.

"There's another body." Owen and Gwen stopped and Jack took an intake of breath and she continued, "I couldn't let Ianto know so I hid it. The pizza girl, Lisa killed her and then transplanted the brain. I shot her, twice. She wanted them to upgrade together, Icouldn'tletherandIknowshehadalreadybeenkilledbut..." She descended into sobs again and Jack stroked her hair and held her tight.

"It wasn't your fault." She heard Gwen make a sound of protest but she ignored it. "where is it?"

"Room after next" she whispered

"Go find it Gwen, and let Tosh know she has to set something up. Make sure Ianto doesn't know." Jack ordered, Gwen left and Owen tactfully left with her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Jack. I know I could have done something, I should have done something but... she made him so happy and I had to try."

"I know" He replied, "come on, let's get you out of these blood stained clothes and I'll take you home."

Lucy started sobbing even harder.

"He's going to hate me. Jack, Ianto will hate me. I can't, I can't Jack. I want to go home."

"He won't hate you Lucy, don't be silly" Jack said soothingly trying to calm the distraught girl down. Not mentioning about how he couldn't get her home no matter how hard he tried. It was a miracle she had survived travelling through the rift, he had no idea how to reverse the process or even if she would be able to live through it again. She was as lost as he was, but he had managed to make a life in Cardiff and hoped his youngest employee would be able to do the same.

"He will, I killed her and he's kicked me out anyway. God all the blood, it was everywhere." She started trying to clean her hands, to get as much of the blood off as possible, but Jack held them to stop her hurting herself.

"Listen to me Lucy Smith, you're going to be fine. I'll get that blood off you in a bit don't worry. Ianto could never hate you. But you can stay here tonight, I'll set up the sofa for you but you need to calm down."

"I want my teddy." She said quietly into his coat after a couple of minutes of silence.

"I know you do Lucy" He said soothingly, "But we don't have him" he continued to stroke her hair until he felt her fall asleep in his arms. Jack gently wiped the blood off her hands so she wouldn't wake to them, although they would haunt her for a while.

He sighed at the mess that had happened today, but picked up Lucy and carefully put her on the sofa. Lucy immediately curled up into a ball as small as she could, as though even in her sleep she was trying to escape from everything. Jack sighed again and pulled off his coat and covered her with it, it wouldn't do for her to wake up cold on top of everything else. She suddenly looked young and Jack was reminded that Lucy Smith was only 23 years old, although she never acted like it.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

About an hour later, he had come back from Ianto's with clothes for Lucy to wear tomorrow and Ianto on suspension for a month. He still hadn't worked out what he was going to do to Lucy, as although she had helped the cyberwoman.

Lucy was still on the sofa but she had managed to kick Jack's coat off her as she succumbed to a nightmare. He could see the pain on her face and could hear the scream before it happened. Only it didn't, Lucy sat bolt upright and screamed as he predicted but it was silent, Jack was at her side in an instant, trying to calm her down.

She had woken up but when she saw him Lucy immediately pulled away from him and curled into a tight ball trying to calm herself down and stop shaking. She refused to look weak in front of him.

He sat at Gwen's desk pretending to get on with some work while he continued to watch her until she fell asleep again – half an hour later. They both knew that he was watching her but as long as neither of them mentioned it they could pretend he wasn't and Lucy wouldn't feel as bad. Once he was sure she had actually gone to sleep he put his coat over her again and actually did get on with some work. He continued to look after her throughout the night, replacing the coat every time she kicked it off, he wanted to make sure she didn't have another nightmare. She was part of his team and that made her well-being his responsibility, he couldn't help feeling as though it was something he had previously failed in. Something he had failed Ianto in as well. Jack resolved to never fail his team in the same way again.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning when Lucy woke up it only took a few seconds to remember what had happened the day before and the fact that she now had blood on her hands that could never be washed off. As she sat up and pulled Jack's coat off her, she realised she was holding it to her like she would hold Teddy.

Jack was working on her desk nearby and noticed she was awake. "Hi."

"Hi" Lucy replied dumbly not sure what else to say.

"Why?" The immortal man asked plainly.

"I had to try Jack." Lucy replied knowing that if he didn't agree with that she said she would be retconned and lose all memories of Torchwood and Doctor Who, as it had been part of her life since she was 14, that was not an idea she was happy with. "I knew how it could and would probably end. But I had to try and save her even if it was impossible and I knew it was. You all look through Ianto, like all he is is his ability to tidy up after you and to make amazing coffee and you don't even thank him for any of it. I had two choices, allow it to happen or to try and help. And if the only help I could offer was not letting him do it alone, then fine."

"Why did you kill her?" Jack's face showed no emotion.

"I killed the body of a girl she had already killed. I can't make it up to that girl family, because I let her die and I'll have to learn to live with that." She said as though it was unimportant, pushing the emotions involved to the back of her mind. "And Lisa died months ago, Ianto just didn't know it, or just didn't allow himself to acknowledge it. I couldn't let Ianto do it. You hate Torchwood 1 so much because it took Rose that you forget about everyone else who lost someone. Everyone whose family worked there and the people who were lucky enough to survive it. They lost everyone that they worked with and you just shrugged it off as unimportant."

Jack glared at her, currently refusing to admit she was right although he knew she was. He also knew that if he had cared about the survivors, he would have spoken to Ianto about it months ago when he first joined and could have been able to stop this whole incident then and there. But his face didn't show it as he continued to question her.

"But why _you_?"

"Because it couldn't be Ianto." She replied simply with a sigh, "I couldn't let him know the full horror of just a single cyberwoman with his girlfriend's face. All he needs to know is it killed Dr Tenzaki and that I killed the cyberwoman. He doesn't need to know about the pizza girl."

"Surely that's up to me as the boss to decide?"

Lucy was annoyed and showed it.

"To be fair Jack, like I said before if you cared more about him than his coffee you wouldn't have told him to go in there and kill her. You would have known that he would have done it and then hated himself for the rest of his life. And I don't know that because of the show." She continued before he could interrupt "Because on that it looks like he gets over it. I say it because I know Ianto. I know that he would just put on a mask and carry on with life because that's Ianto, that's what people like us do" He gestured to show she included Jack in that as well as herself. "So you know what, I don't give a damn if you retcon me, I wouldn't know any different anyway would I? But if you think that I was going to let Ianto destroy himself you've got another thing coming."

She and Jack were now standing and were in each other's personal space when the door opened and Tosh and Owen walked in. Tosh was carrying cups of coffee from Starbucks.

"Wow, that looks like quite an argument." Owen commented as he pulled his coat off and threw it over his chair.

"I thought I said you should come into work late." Jack said glaring at them.

"We did." Tosh replied, "even stopped to get coffee."

"Yeah, didn't think you were going to let tea-boy in." Owen said sarcastically.

Jack looked at Lucy's angry eyes and then stepped back out of her personal space before saying.

"His name is Ianto, Owen. Learn to use it, he's more than just the tea-boy." He sat down on Lucy's chair and looked back at her. "Go home, he's not angry at you. I don't want to see you and Ianto back here until I say so. You're on suspension, I'll come and see you both when I've calmed down and can sort this out rationally. You can come in tomorrow to get a couple of DVDs if you want, but you will be accompanied at all times"

Lucy nodded and picked up his coat from where she had left it on the sofa, she handed it to him with a sad smile.

"Thank you, Jack. I'm not sure I'll take you up on your offer straight away maybe next week if that's allowed."

"Just call and let me know. Go." She smiled again and went to leave but Tosh blocked her way.

"I brought coffee for you, and Ianto as well."

"Thanks Tosh." Lucy gave a sad smile to her as well in understanding, "I'm sure if you want to come visit..."

Tosh looked up at Jack who was staring at the pair of them,

"Maybe."

Lucy knew what Tosh meant and just nodded in understanding. At that moment Tosh couldn't commit to anything more than a maybe, and that was understandable, the events that Lucy had let happen the day before almost led to their deaths.

"Well I doubt we're going to be out much. Although Ianto might go stay with his sister for a bit. Anyway," she shrugged, "I've got to go."

Tosh let her past this time and Lucy left the hub holding two cups of Starbucks coffee.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: I love cyberwoman, I know some people think it's the worst episode but for all the character moments I love it. And I loved writing it too. Next week is an in-between chapter where Ianto and Lucy have a 'conversation' about why she didn't tell him.**

**See you next week**

**Rea**

**P.S Please don't forget to REVIEW, they make me happy!**

**P.P.S I don't own that song, it's called 'Both Sides Now' and belongs to Joni Mitchell. John Barrowman did a great cover of it and that's the one that Lucy is listening to**


	11. Chapter 11 - Consequences

**YOUR EYES DO NOT DECEIVE YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED YOUR GREATEST WISH  
**(Basically I'm in a good mood and decided to give you an extra chapter for today. It's also for pacing reasons that you'll discover in a few weeks)

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Why?" Ianto walked into the front room where Lucy was busy pacing, this was a conversation they both knew was going to happen and they had both been putting off for the past couple of weeks. But they could do it no longer and they both knew it. Ianto needed to know why Lucy had done what she did, why she had lied to him about Lisa and why she had walked into the hub and shot her instead of him.

"You wouldn't understand" Lucy said as she stopped pacing to face him, her face was begging him to drop it but also showed resignation and relief that they were final going to discuss the elephant in the room.  
"What do you mean?" Ianto pressed; this was more than Lucy not telling anyone about her past or what was going to happen in the future. That was understandable. This was her refusing to tell him about the choices she had made for him, that was not acceptable. Lucy sighed.

"Just... look, I mean... how could you understand?" The archivist was normally fairly level headed but he could feel his temper start to rise.

"If you just explained, I'm sure I'd get it."

"Don't bother" Lucy said nearly begging. Earlier she had wanted them to have this conversation, thinking that she knew what she was going to say, but now she wished that Ianto had never brought it up, she had no idea what to say. How do you tell someone that their girlfriend could never have been fixed and had been dead for months? That the thing they had loved was a creature using the memories and the face of Lisa and that that she had killed an innocent simply because she was there? Or that she truly didn't believe that he would ever recover from what Jack had asked him to do?

"But I want to know why." Ianto continued, not knowing the thoughts that were running round her head

"It doesn't matter." Lucy said after a long pause, still not knowing what to say so she sat down on the sofa and started playing with the end of her plait refusing to look at Ianto.

Ianto took a deep breath and sat down next to her, not looking at her either.

"It mattered enough for you to do it." He said quietly

"Forget it." Lucy whispered, looking up at him briefly, "please Ianto just forget it. I wish I could."

"I'm going to find out at some point" He replied and Lucy's temper flared and she tugged on her plait even harder.

"FINE. You want me to tell you why?" She turned to face him her eyes ablaze with anger.

"Yes please" His voice was calm but she could see the determination in his eyes. Lucy was about to say everything, but the thought of Ianto's face when Jack had told him to go kill Lisa stopped her and she sagged and looked away again, hugging one of the cushions.

"I... I can't Ianto. I wish it had never happened but I don't regret what I did."

"Why not?" Ianto realised that although he might not ever find out everything he was getting closer to finding out _something_, which would have to do for now.

"You know me Ianto. You know what I'm like, try to imagine yourself in my position what would you do?"

"I don't know" He replied truthfully, "I don't fully know the situation you're in. But I have no idea what I would do if the rift took me to a fictional world that I knew. I just..." he shrugged "I just don't know."

"Me neither, and that's my life" She said sarcastically loosening her hold on the cushion. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Ianto, but I couldn't. But what I'm not going to apologise for is going in instead of you."  
"I didn't imagine you would" He pulled the cushion out of her hold forcing her to look at him, "I just wish you'd told me the truth about Lisa." She tried to look away but Ianto wouldn't let her.

"I'm sorry."

"I can't imagine to understand what you are going through but it try and tell me something. For example..." He pretended to think seriously before smiling "Does Owen ever stop drinking and having one night stands?" Lucy smiled.

"Nope". They both sat on the sofa thinking before Lucy spoke again, "Does this mean I'm not kicked out?"

"Cook a decent dinner tonight and I'll let you stay." Ianto replied sarcastically. "I'm going to go stay with Rhiannon for a week. When I get back we'll move on and won't talk about it."

"You don't want to know more?" Lucy asked confused.  
"Course I do, but I know you Miss Smith. You won't tell me anymore no matter how much I ask."

"Nah," She got up off the sofa "Chicken and white sauce for dinner?"

"Sounds nice. I'll call Rhi and let her know that I'm going to go stay."

Lucy looked back at him while standing in the doorway, "Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Ianto's face turned dark.

"It means I understand and I'm willing to try and move on and get over it. Don't push it."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: This chapter was important for me to write, the relationship between Lucy and the team is something that I try to focus on and to keep them in character, although of course things do inevitably change with the different situations I put them in. **

**As I was asked in a review about why Lucy was suspended too I'll let you know here.**

**In all the other episodes so far, and in most of the future ones too, Lucy has simply allowed things to happen the way that 'time dictates they should', small things change but the events are still the same. If she'd done the same with Ianto and Lisa, simply allowed it to happen Jack would have been annoyed but understood it. However Lucy HELPED, she made a concious decision to try and help Ianto fix Lisa (see chapter 1) and that meant that instead of being a bystander she was part of the problem. Plus it was also to give the rest of the team time to calm down over it, if Lucy had stayed the rest of the team would have gone mental because she helped Ianto - never mind that she was the one to kill Lisa/Annie**

**Hope that caused up any confusion.**

**Have a great day and I'll see you again for Small Worlds on Friday**

**Rea**


	12. Chapter 12 - Small Worlds

**Sorry it's a day late**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 16th October (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

Lucy and Ianto both woke up early on the day their suspension was lifted and they were cleared to go back to work. It was a joint decision that didn't take much thinking about the night before to go in before the rest of the team did. This meant that they would not be stared at as they walked into the hub and would hopefully make it less awkward. It was also a case of returning to normal as soon as possible, and normal included the team coming in to find Ianto either on the tourist office desk or making coffee whilst Lucy was in the range shooting. They were never earlier than Jack but that was because he slept in the hub, neither of them had any idea what time Jack was ready for work, when he found the time to sleep, or even if he needed it.

"You ready?" Ianto asked as he let them into the tourist office and locked the door again behind him - it was 5am after all and Tosh would not be in for at least another three hours, she would let herself in but leave the door unlocked so that once she had got her coffee from Ianto he could go back upstairs and get some paperwork done before the early morning tourists appeared wanting to know what they should spend the rest of the day doing. It had been an agreement with the Welsh Assembly when the cover for Torchwood 3 had been decided on, not that the Assembly had much choice, the office had to be open between 8-8 so as not to ruin the Welsh tourist board and its reputation. They kept to those rules as much as possible, using them more as guidelines than actual rules; there were other tourist offices in Cardiff after all.

The two walked through the office, Ianto picking up the pile of post and files that had been left on the side as they continued down the corridor towards the hub.

"No but yes." She replied eventually, "You?"

"Same. It'll be good to get back to work though, try and catch up on things before the team get in as well."

"I'm just looking forward to playing with my guns again, I've fallen out of practice this past month."

"You'll be fine." Ianto said with a smirk

"I need to be more than fine." The cog door opened and they slipped into the dark hub. "Looks like you've got your job cut out tidying this place up." Lucy commented with a wry smile

The floor and the desks of the hub were a mess, food cartons where everywhere as well as old files and rubbish, Ianto sighed.  
"1 month. I've been gone a month."

"Well you have fun, with all the tidying and stuff... I'm going to go shoot." Lucy said working her way through the hub in the darkness as she got closer to her small office and shooting range.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was glad that when she finally emerged from the shooting range a couple of hours later the rest of the team had already turned up and weren't treating her any differently, although Tosh did welcome her back. There was a moment where it was awkward when she first appeared but Owen only rolled his eyes and asked if she liked the high score on the shooting competition that they had started. Lucy had instantly told him that she had decimated his score and that maybe he ought to get some more practice in if he didn't like being beaten by a girl. The sense of normality from Owen mocking Lucy and Lucy responding with as good as she got caused the tension to disappear and Lucy knew that although they would never forget that she had helped to hide a cyberwoman in Torchwood they had forgiven her.

"Got anything interesting?" Lucy asked as she leant against Tosh's desk.

"You mean apart from your monthly medical with Owen?" Jack asked as he walked out of his office.

"Come on Jack." Lucy moaned, "It's not like I've been working this past month so nothing could have changed between now and the last time you forced me to go through torture."

"Still not changing my mind." He said with his eyebrow raised "Just like you didn't last time, or the time before that, or the one before that come to think of it. Is there any reason why we have to have this argument every month?"

"Because one day you'll change your mind and agree that you don't need the excuse of a monthly medical to give Owen a chance to release some of his sadistic tendencies."

"I am not sadistic!" Owen called across

"Yes you are." Lucy replied and Tosh nodded.

"You've not got the best bedside manner." She said diplomatically

"I've hardly got the best patients. Besides I'm better off when dealing with dead bodies - I don't need to worry about being polite that way."

"It doesn't matter if Owen is sadistic or not." Jack interrupted "What is important is the fact that Lucy has to have a monthly medical, and it seem like I have to have a monthly argument with her about it."

"Fine." Lucy rolled her eyes, "The fact that I've been near nothing alien for the last month obviously makes no difference seeing as these medicals are to check impacts of alien technology. Besides we all know Owen just wants more of my blood to look at."

"What can I say?" Owen joked, "You're unique and I'm the only doctor who gets to study the differences, for all we know I might find something interesting by getting a fresh sample every month."

"Hang on" Gwen said, Lucy had forgotten she was there, "what's so special about Lucy's blood?"

"Rare blood type" Owen said automatically, "mixed with a genetic condition. Doesn't make any impact on her life but makes for an interesting study, not that I can publish anything I find. Isn't that right Lucy?"

"Yeah." She added with an exhale of breath, "My whole family has it."

"So if I can please deal with my grumpy patient and get this over with..." Lucy sighed and pushed herself off the desk, she looked seriously at Tosh.

"When you hear me screaming for help and none of you bother to turn up, don't be surprised if the next thing you hear after that is a gunshot and then the thud of Owen's body hitting the floor."

"As long as you tidy up and take him to the morgue yourself I don't think anyone would complain." Tosh said dryly not taking her eyes off the computer screen.

"Right now we've got the argument done and out of the way, Gwen you and me are going out. Ianto see what else you can find about what you mentioned earlier and Tosh, that letter we found last week? Can you start working on a translation for me?"

"Sure."

They all got to their assigned jobs and Lucy walked over to Owen, who quickly put the curtain up and started the physical.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

An hour or so after Owen finished torturing her in the name of medicine, Jack called the hub. "Gwen and I are on our way back. I need you to find everything you can about fairies."

"Fairies?" Tosh had said surprised although she was already entering the term into her search engine.

"Yes the Cottingley fairies anything you can find that could be useful and real."

"I'll have to search deep to find the beginnings of the lore." She mused "Fairies are everywhere and each version is slightly different."

"We'll be back in 10 minutes, meeting in 30." Jack said before hanging up. Tosh looked both bemused and annoyed before shrugging,

"Looks like I've got work to do. Ianto, have we got anything in the archives?"

"Maybe, doubt it." He replied. "I'll have a look just in case."

30 minutes later they were all in the meeting room, Ianto walked in with a tray full of coffees as Tosh had the famous picture of the Cottingley fairies on the screen.

"It's fake." Gwen said stubbornly

"I blame it on magic mushrooms." Ianto said dryly as he handed out the coffee.  
"What you do in private is none of our business." Jack said

"Conan Doyle believed it was true." Tosh pointed out.

"He was gaga at the time." Gwen replied quickly

"_And_ Houdini?"

"Self-publicist."

"How do you know so much about it?" Jack asked

"Because I wrote an essay on the Cottingley glass plate photographs when I was at school."

"And you remember all the information you had to know for _one_ essay?" Lucy asked sarcastically, "Bloody hell I can barely remember the over arching themes of the information my teachers told me. Let alone enough to hold my own in argument about something I did an essay on years ago."

"Some things just stick in your brain." Gwen replied "And when the girls were old ladies they admitted they were fakes."

"So where was this sighting then?" Tosh asked moving on to one of the photos that Jack had brought back with him

"In a place called Roundstone Wood." Jack replied

"I know it." Owen said from where he was sitting against one of the cabinets on the side "Has an odd history."

"Am I the only person who isn't a fountain of endless useless knowledge?" Lucy asked.

"Date of the first Doctor Who episode" Jack shot at her and Lucy responded automatically

"23rd November 1963 - An Unearthly Child, and the modern series started on 26th March 2005 - Rose."

"There you go." Jack nodded, "you filled your brain with other stuff. Hang on, _Rose_ Rose?"

"Err, yeah." She shrugged, ignoring Gwen's confused face and the rest of the team looking annoyed; although they may know more about what they were talking about than Gwen did they still had no way of putting it into context. "It's extra useless now though isn't it. Not like their useless knowledge that always turns out to be helpful in cases like this."

"Not always. Anyway, Owen?"

"Err yeah... It's always stayed wild. In the ancient times it was considered bad luck to walk in there, even to collect timber. Even the Romans stayed clear of it."

"I've had no report of any sighting" Tosh said

"You won't" Jack replied, "These things come under the radar, but they play tricks with the weather, so set up a program from unnatural weather patterns."  
"Right." Tosh started making notes on her handled machine

"Are you saying our machines can't pick them up?" Gwen asked suddenly worried, a few minutes ago this had all been a joke and now it wasn't. They had fought aliens before so why not fairies? The knowledge that they couldn't even find them was worrying.

"Nothing can." Jack replied straight faced and they could see that he wasn't really with them, he was thinking about the past. About half a minute later the look disappeared off his face. "Gwen, Owen, we're going to the woods to see what we can find. Tosh set up that program and then go back to the search, I don't know what I expect you'll find so I can't help but look for things attached to the 'chosen ones'. Ianto have a look in the archives, if they've got a circle nearby Torchwood might have met them before. Lucy you help Ianto, unfortunately your speciality isn't really needed today."

"Fine by me." Lucy shrugged "oh and Jack..." She didn't want to make it obvious that she knew this episode as Gwen was still in the vicinity but she had promised. "It sounds to me like this could be called _'Small_ _Worlds' _and that this is the _fifth._"

Jack looked confused for a couple of seconds before he understood what Lucy was trying to tell him. "Great well let me know what you can. Let's go; Owen, Gwen."

They all got to work, Owen and Gwen followed Jack and Tosh and Ianto turned on Lucy almost straight away.

"Going to tell us what the cryptic message to Jack was about?" Tosh asked

"I've got to tell him if it's an episode" Lucy replied as she drained her mug. "Only I want to keep Gwen in the dark for as long as possible. He's given me an expiry date on the secret, I've got until election day."

"So you know what's going on?"

"Vaguely." Lucy shrugged, "I know how it ends and I can remember the name of the girl - could probably pick her out in a line up, if I had to. But anything more than that not outside of major plot points and even those fairly few. It's not my favourite episode."

"And we're on episode 5." Ianto said, Lucy knew it wasn't a question but she replied anyway.

"Yeah, out of 13 in the first series."

"What were the others?"

"Gwen joining and Suzie, Gwen's first day, the ghost machine and er..." She looked awkwardly at Ianto.

"Lisa." He filled in the gap and Lucy nodded.

"We're getting through them pretty quickly." Tosh mused.

"I dunno I suppose so, I know the last one ends just before election day - I think anyway it was only ever implied. And we have one over Christmas and there's a run on from that..."

"So I shouldn't invite the family over for Christmas then?" Ianto said dryly

"It's Torchwood, did you ever expect it to be dull?" Lucy asked with a teasing tone to her voice before turning serious again, "It's not like we're in London - they have a mess to deal with every Christmas. It's almost tradition."

"There was the Sycorax last year that but apart from that it's been quiet." Tosh said defensively.

"7pm Christmas Day, Doctor Who." Lucy replied, "This year is the Titanic then..." She thought for a second, "No hang on... its series 3 so I want the Christmas before that which is pre-Martha... post-Rose, which means Donna. So it's the Spider and Donna this year and _then_ the Titanic and then cybermen in Victorian London, then the regeneration and then... 'A Christmas Carol' and that's in the future on a different planet so I think we'll be fine, and we don't have to deal with the cybers in Victorian London either." Ianto and Tosh stared at her as Lucy pulled herself out of 'fanmode' as she had dubbed it and blushed slightly, she looked awkwardly at them."Er... can we just forget I said all of that and get on with the jobs Jack gave us?"

Tosh sighed.

"I suppose I should get this program up and running, but really Lucy? A spider and the Titanic? That's what we've got to look forward to?"

"Well on the upside we don't need to worry about it cause the Doctor sorts it. We can pretend we are normal and watch it on the TV, although like I said this year isn't exactly quiet for us. But it's not a major monster..." She tried to find the right words, "just a situation? And to be fair I think that happens before Christmas. I think." She winced but Tosh and Ianto looked at each other and shrugged.

"Come on." Ianto said as he walked towards the archives. "Let's get some work done before you start telling us about every plot coming up that we don't need to deal with."

"Sounds like a plan. Oh and Tosh?"

"Hmm?" Tosh had already started working on the programming, so didn't look up from the screen

"I know Gwen keeps saying those photo's are fake but it might be interesting to run the faces of the fairies through a face recognition software at some point."

"_Interesting_ kind of interesting?"

"I can't give you the answers but I might be able to speed up the result." Lucy replied, Ianto sighed and grabbed her arm as he continued to walk away, pulling Lucy behind him. "Ow, yes I'm coming, I'm coming."

Tosh laughed and got back to her work, Lucy's words ringing in her ears. She made a small note to herself to run the recognition software as soon as possible. It would take a while because she would need to up the quality as much as possible in order to get the best result, but as it was only a small area of the photo each face would only take an hour or so to clean up.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They found nothing useful that night, once Jack, Gwen and Owen came back and helped out and when Jack sent them home they were all slightly disheartened.

"Wait a sec" Jack called from his office as they were all preparing to leave, "I've just had a weird call from the police. They've had a cell death they can't explain, want us to go check it out."

"Well I've got late night tomorrow night." Owen said quickly, "So I'm going out to the pub, it'll still be dead tomorrow morning if you need a more in depth look."

"Fine, Gwen, Tosh?" Jack looked at the two women and they shrugged,

"Sure." Tosh agreed, "it's not the first time I've had to cover for Owen."

"I'll come." Lucy said as she pulled her leather jacket on, "got nothing else to do."

"You and Ianto are going home." Jack said firmly "You got in at 5am and have been working non-stop. You both need to sleep."

"I'll be fine." Lucy replied with a shrug, "I got plenty of sleep over this past month."

"I'm trying to be a good boss here, now go home to bed."  
"Are you sure that's not harassment sir?" Ianto asked and Jack smirked

"You wish. Now do we need to drive you on our way to the cells or are you going to go by yourself?"

"We're going." Ianto said directing Lucy towards the car park. Lucy knew that trying to object at this point would be useless no matter how much she wanted to, it was annoying her how little she knew about this episode as well. Although Jack had allowed her to take DVDs out while she was on suspension she had decided to watch Doctor Who instead of Torchwood, thinking it would be better to not remind herself of everything that was going to happen in her life in the coming months that she wasn't allowed to change. She was starting to regret that choice now.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy and Ianto walked into work at their normal early time, although not as early as the day before. The tone in the Hub was muted as though something terrible had happened, Jack was sitting in his office getting on with work while Tosh did the same at her desk, looking over at Jack every now and again as though she was checking up on him. Ianto went straight over to the coffee maker while Lucy walked over to Tosh.

"What happened?" She asked quietly.

"A friend of his 'Dads' died last night." Tosh replied equally quietly

"Ahh." Lucy understood immediately and then cursed as she realised that she remembered Estelle and what had happened, they had shown it in the damn episode.

"Exactly" Tosh said "and we can't track these things apart from through the weather patterns. I've got the program up and running no problem and the second we pick anything up we'll be ready to go. But apart from research there is nothing we can do, and it's not even like there is much research to do. I'm running the faces through the scanner like you suggested but I'm having to do them one at a time and I need to tidy them up as well to get the best result possible if we get any result."

"So we have to act as though we don't have a case on because we can't do anything else then?"  
"Precisely. All we know about these things is they can control the elements and they protect their chosen child. The call out last night from the cells - he choked on flower petals. Jack said it's a common thing for them to do but I don't understand it. If they were so powerful why?"

"They're children." Lucy said with a shrug, remembering everything that had been said to her as she was growing up "Kids can be and often are mean, because they can be. If they want to hurt you and they're more powerful they will. Consequences aren't a thing in their mind and these are powerful children - whose going to punish them? How are they going to punish them? Send them into the naughty corner for five minutes?"

"I think Jack wants to shoot them." Tosh replied also remembering the bullies at her school, the incident seemed a little better now she understood the motivation behind it although the thought of school bullies with this level of power was not comforting.

"What difference is that going to make to them though?"

"Might kill them."

"It probably would, but there's more than one of them and they can take away the air we breathe. Killing one would mean in all our deaths - probably the deaths of everyone in the area in their anger, if not more."

"What do we do then?"

"I don't know" Lucy sighed, she didn't like having to lie to her friends and she was certain that she knew she was lying as well, as she had admitted to the Japanese woman that she knew how this story went and Toshiko wasn't one for forgetting the details. She wasn't surprised when Tosh raised an eyebrow at her and turned to get back on with her work, silently declaring the conversation over.

Ianto walked over with a tray and three mugs of coffee on top of it, Lucy took Jack's as well as her own.  
"I'm going in to talk to him anyway." She explained, Ianto nodded in understanding before putting the tray back and starting to get on with his job - the hub needed to be tidied up a bit, and Myfwany needed to be fed before he went down to the archives.

Lucy walked over to Jack's office and knocked on the door frame as she walked in.

"I've brought your coffee and wondered if you wanted to talk." Jack took the mug but didn't say anything, "Fair enough, I didn't actually think you would but thought I should probably offer, seeing as I'm one of the few people who knows the truth after all. I'm presuming you met her post-Doctor, so your second time in WWII, cause you were hardly the settle down type beforehand and besides you were only in that time to pull a con." Jack looked up at her from his mug and Lucy blushed. "Fuck, sorry Jack. I didn't think about what I was saying. Anyway the real reason I came in here was to say that you almost certainly don't want to talk to anyone but just to remind you that shooting is a good way to get rid of some extra stress. Plus according to the Hub rules you need to train for at least an hour a week before you can leave the hub with a weapon and you haven't done that for over a month."

Lucy could see she'd broken Jack's barrier as he smirked at her.

"Are you really going to try and enforce that rule with me? In full knowledge that isn't actually a Torchwood rule?"

"It got you to say something didn't it? And I'm not that stupid, I've got no chance at being better than you - ever. Plus it's totally a real Torchwood rule. We're the only one left - apart from Archie - and it's our rule. Therefore it is a Torchwood rule. Just like you're the head of the whole Torchwood institute by default. You agreed with the hub rules making them official Torchwood rules twice over."

Jack just looked at her.

"I'm not sure it works that way."

"My logic is flawless." Lucy replied with a smile, "anyway, I'm planning on catching up with my paperwork up here for the afternoon, I've got a month's worth of Torchwood to catch up on. So the range is free if you want to use it."

"Thanks." He said, Lucy could see that he meant it, just as his phone rang. "Gwen? ... I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Need back up?" Lucy asked, Jack relayed the question and was grateful when the reply was negative; it meant that whatever the problem was it wasn't an emergency.

"Jack?" Lucy said as he hung up and grabbed his great coat. "I know that they want their chosen one and she's just a child, but how can we stop it? What if she wants to go and it stops people dying?"

"I don't know." Jack replied seriously, "But we can't let them keep killing."  
"They're trying to defend their friend."

Jack didn't say anything but Lucy could see that he was thinking about it, he pulled his coat on and the pair left his office. She went to the sofa and grabbed the paperwork and he left to go and help Gwen.

When Jack came back to the hub, Gwen was in tow; Owen had turned up about an hour earlier. "What happened?" Tosh asked, she could see that Gwen was angry.

"They ransacked my flat, smashed everything up, petals and twigs and dirt everywhere. Took us hours to tidy it up."

"Are you ok?"

"Fine, just a bit shaken up. Rhys is livid and wants to report it to the police, but they can't do anything. And I had to let him call it in because if I don't it'll look suspicious - I don't like lying to him."

"The good news is you are both still alive." Lucy pointed out, "It's not like they aren't powerful enough to kill you, so the fact that they didn't means they only wanted to scare you."

"And that makes me feel loads better, thanks!" Gwen retorted sarcastically.

"Tosh" Jack said stopping the argument between Gwen and Lucy before it began, "I want a report on all unexplained deaths in the area, see if any are ours and linked with this."

"What's the weather forecast today?" Tosh asked

"Sunny spells" Ianto replied straight away.

"It's happening again." Tosh zoomed in on the map, pin pointing the area of freak weather. Lucy looked at her watch.

"10:30, it's break time for schools." They all looked at her and she shrugged, "The chosen one is a child yeah? Therefore these things are going to happen on a child's timetable and not ours. The man yesterday was arrested about an hour after the schools finished for the day, so if the child is in danger now I would guess they are being bullied by other pupils."

"How do you know what time schools have their morning break?" Jack asked, Lucy stared at him and looked slightly uncomfortable.

"I err... just one of those things that always stuck in my head, like you and your faries. Break at 10:30, lunch 12:15, finish at 3. I mean all schools are slightly different but those are the rough timings." They could all tell she wasn't telling the complete truth but it didn't matter because they had a job to do and she was probably right in her guess for the cause of the situation.

"Let's go."

They piled out of the SUV in the school car park, parents picking up students. Jack flashed his badge at the front desk.

"Hi, we're here to ask a few questions." The receptionist looked confused but nodded.

"Can we talk to the teacher who was on duty?" Lucy asked

"Kate Ried, she teaches year 3. I think she's in shock though."

"That's understandable, we've just got a couple of questions about what happened." Jack said turning on the charm offensive

"She's in the staff room, I'll go get her for you."  
"Thank you for your help."

A minute or so later a young woman walked up the corridor to meet them, she was pale and wrapped in a blanket.

"You wanted to speak to me?"

"We were just wondering if you could tell us exactly what happened?"  
"You police?"

"Not quite." Owen said, "we deal with things like this that are a bit... unusual."

"In Cardiff?"

"Happens more often than you would think, so?"

"I've got some stuff to do in my classroom, can I tell you on the way?"

"No problem."

They started to walked down the corridor, Lucy only half listening as she looked at all the displays on the wall. This job and walking through a primary school again was making her feel homesick and she couldn't help but wish she was still suspended; why did it have to start happening the day she came back, why not a couple of days earlier and then she wouldn't have to deal with it?

"I've never seen anything like it. It was so sudden. Then it... then it just ended."

"Was anyone hurt?" Owen asked, always the doctor.

"No two children were almost scared to death, but they're ok. And there was little Jasmine in amongst it all. She hadn't been touched, the sun was shining down on her." Owen and Tosh slipped away with the equipment to take some readings as Gwen joined them again. This brought Lucy out of her thoughts.

"What's Jasmine's relationship with the other two girls?"

"Jasmine's a bit of a loner, doesn't really have any friends. She struggles with the others, away with the fairies a bit"

"These other two girls though" Lucy pushed, "are they friendly towards her or not?"

"They're a couple of years above her, but no I don't think they like her."

"Do they bully her?"

"Maybe... I don't know. Why all these questions?"  
"We can't tell you that I'm afraid." Jack said "Whose Jasmine?"  
"Jasmine Pearce, she's a pupil of mine?"

"You teach year three?" Lucy asked and the teacher nodded "So Jasmine's 7 or 8?"

"She's 8."

"Have you sent her home already?"

"Yeah, her parents live fairly close. Her mum was one of the first to get here."  
"Do you know what her home life is like?"

"I think she's alone there as well - she's an only child, her father left when she was a baby and her mother found a new bloke a while back, although I don't think they got married. I don't think she gets along with her stepfather but she doesn't say anything."

"Ok thanks for your help." Jack said as they reached the classroom door

"The chosen one?" Gwen asked

"Yeah." Jack replied, "I'll get Ianto to find out where she lives and we'll go straight there."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy watched as the fairies wrecked the party and started attacking the man they assumed was Jasmine's stepfather, everyone panicking and little Jasmine standing calmly in the middle, watching it all with a smile on her face. Gwen looked horrified and Jack looked like he didn't know what to do as he tried to beg the fairies into stopping. Lucy decided to do what she has always done with her little sister when she felt out of her depth, talk to the child directly.

She walked forward and bent down to Jasmine's height.

"Hi Jasmine" She said with a smile, "I'm Lucy, I need you to promise me something."

"I want to go" Jasmine said and Lucy nodded, knowing there was nothing she could do.

"I know you do. But I still need to hear that promise, and then you can go. Ok?"

"Jack!" Gwen shouted behind her trying to get him to save the day but she ignored it.

"I need you to promise me that you're unhappy here. Even if your friends hadn't chosen you, that you wouldn't want to stay. Can you do that?"

Jasmine's mother was close by and she was looking over, trying to decide between her dead partner and her daughter, she was being held back by Owen. Jasmine looked at her, at the fairies, at Roy's dead body and then back at Lucy who was waiting patiently for an answer.

"I don't like it here, I want to be in the forest with my friends."

"Ok" Jack said crouching down to join them, "But I want your friends to promise me something too. I need them to promise that they are going to keep you safe."

Two of the fairies landed behind the little girl, standing like her bodyguards.

"She is one of us, we could not hurt her. She lives forever."

The two members of Torchwood nodded, happy with that agreement and stepped back. "Take her" Jack said simply.

"Wait" Lucy said, suddenly needing to know if they could answer her question, and voicing her thoughts before she'd even realised that she was thinking them. "Before you go... if you are constant across all of time and space does that count for universes as well?"

"It does, and she is not one of us but she is a happy child and because of who you are and what you have done for us today we will look over her for you, until she no longer needs us." The fairies replied, answering the question she was really asking.

"Thank you, it is more than I could ever have asked for. I just wanted to know she was happy and you have given me a great gift that I can never repay." Lucy smiled at Jasmine, "Go join your friends, Jasmine. They are waiting for you. Be happy."

Jasmine grinned up at them and her mother finally came out of her trance screaming for her little girl as she skipped away, out of the garden with her fairy friends as she became one of them herself.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed Small Worlds. There's a few more hints in here towards Lucy's life before Torchwood. Sorry again it's a day late and I'll see you next week for Countrycide.**

**I've also worked out what date things are happening and am going to go back and edit that in and make a point to put in on future chapters.**

**Have a good week, keep smiling and please review**

**Rea**


	13. Chapter 13 - Countrycide

After Lucy and Ianto had came back from their suspension apart from the first couple of days and the incident with the fairies, Jack spotted that Lucy was quieter than before and doing her best to stay unnoticed and out of sight.

Lucy had noticed this in herself as well but wasn't sure how to pull herself out of this funk. Since appearing in this world she had thrown herself into everything that was happening - she wasn't sure how long this was going to last and had decided to live every fans dream the way she _should_. However since killing Lisa and knowing that she was the reason that the family of the pizza delivery girl - Annie - thought she had committed suicide, Lucy had found herself falling back into her old habits. Not letting others notice her was one of the first things she'd learnt. The second was to make everyone think she was fine, if they did notice her. Staying out of sight was fairly difficult in a team of 6, especially since they discovered Ianto's secret and that Jack was forcing him to join the team more instead of just tiding up after them. But for Lucy, who couldn't remember ever not having a secret which meant that she wanted to stay out of sight, it wasn't as difficult as she originally thought and feared that it would be. She got her work done on time and although she joined them on the rugby outing all she needed to do was to join in the conversation when needed, but mainly to just listen and nod. People noticed if you stayed out of sight, but if you made all the right noises at the right time they never noticed anything was wrong.

This worked well although she was lonely at work she still talking and enjoyed spending her spare time with Ianto outside of Torchwood. He was sure that Ianto knew that she was doing but he didn't bring it up.

Staying in the shadows worked until Jack walked down from his office with a camping rucksack on his back. It seemed out of place and in direct contrast to his normal WWII wear and yet somehow he managed to pull it off.

"Team building trip" He said with a smirk

"Where are we going?" Gwen asked as they all stopped what they were doing to look at their boss.

"Brecon beacons" The captain replied, Lucy's face lost all of its colour as she remembered the episode that was about to happen. "We're going camping. Every 10 years people disappear in this area, we're going to find out why."  
"I'm not going camping." Owen argued as he pulled his bloody gloves off and threw them in the bin,.

"It's a _team_ building trip and you're part of the team." Jack replied his voice leaving no room for arguments. "UNIT is lending me a few people to keep an eye on the rift while we're out. You've got 2 hours to get everything ready, and they'll be here by then. Once they are here - we're off."  
Everyone grumbled but moved to go home and pack a bag, Lucy didn't move from her seat. She stared at Jack, her mask a face of horror. She couldn't go. She couldn't face this.

They only noticed her lack of movement once Gwen had left the hub, Owen was following her and had nearly gone as well but he happened to glance back, the second he spotted Lucy he stopped. This caused Tosh to almost walk into him and Jack to look up, Owen gestured at Lucy and Jack walked over to her.

"Lucy?" He asked and her voice broke as she tried to reply and work out what to say.

"I... I can't... please"

"Why are you so scared Lucy?" Jack asked speaking to her like someone would speak to a spooked animal.

Lucy was trying to not think about what was hiding in the Beacons. The images on the TV screen of the episode that she hated to watch. Plus the knowledge the that was going to happen was going to be worse as it wouldn't be toned down for the TV screen as well as the smell that was going to go with it.  
"Please Jack..."  
"Why are you so scared?" Jack repeated

"I can't tell you." Lucy replied, her eyes coming back to focus on Jack and the hub instead of her memories. "You know I can't tell you what's going to happen. But I can't go, please don't make me go." She stared to panic and Ianto moved away from the door to kneel beside her in an effort to calm her down.

"31 episodes and I can watch 30. I can't watch this one please don't make me live it. I can't live it. I'll take you to Madame Tuassuads... Please just don't make me... I can't go through their harvest."

"You're petrified of waxworks." Ianto said, understanding exactly how scared she really was. "Jack, Lucy wouldn't go there for an offer to travel in the TARDIS." He explained to the Captain.

"Well if it's that scary why should we go at all?" Owen asked from the door.

"Well we need to calm Lucy down before we do anything." Ianto snapped in response, "She's on the verge of hyperventilating."

"Keep her focussed on something," Owen replied "There's nothing else that I can do unless you want me to knock her out."  
"Let's keep that as plan B" Jack said sarcastically "Lucy, keep looking at Ianto and breathe"  
"Don't make me go there Yan... I can't... please... I can't do it"  
"I'm not going to make you do anything" Ianto replied, "you need to calm down Lucy, breathe with me. In and out... that's it... in and out."

It took a couple of minutes but Lucy eventually calmed down, she was curled up in a chair in Jack's office holding a hot coffee. Jack stood in front of her and Ianto sat behind her; Jack had told Tosh and Owen to go back home and pack. Ianto was only allowed to stay in case she panicked again, along with a promise that he would stay silent.

"You want to tell us what this is about?" Jack said leaning on the desk watching her seriously, "I wasn't expecting that reaction when I mentioned a team camping trip."

Lucy didn't say anything but stared at her mug instead as though it would all disappear

"Lucy!" Jack said forcing her to answer the question

"What do you want me to say?" She spoke quietly

"The truth is normally the best, but I'm not sure it fits this current situation." Jack replied flippantly

"The truth is that what's hidden in the Beacons petrifies me, but you need to go."

"What scares you so much that you can't face?" Jack mused knowing that she couldn't reply. he thought for a bit then spoke again, "Ok so you'll be a danger risk on this mission then?"

Lucy nodded, not trusting her voice to stay steady.

"But we still need to go, not just for team building but because there is a creature hiding there that needs to be stopped."

"Creatures, plural" Lucy amended, not correcting Jack on his assumption that these were aliens of some sort, because although they may have been born human, Lucy couldn't think of them as such. Or rather the problem was that she _could_ think of them as human and she knew that what they were doing was horrible but that the Master was right, 'human beings, the greatest monsters of them all'.

"There's more than one of them?"

"Yeah" Lucy breathed, "and you won't see them coming."

"Don't give too much away." Jack said with a small smile, "it takes all the fun out of it." Lucy couldn't help but give a small smile back.

"Time travel is such a pain." she agreed.

"Exactly. Now I'll leave you here with the UNIT guys on the proviso that you don't go out into the field without them if you need to. You're not in charge in the field, and they are setting up their own base as I'm not having them in the hub. I may not like UNIT but there are times that they know what they are doing. You're to spend the time you're not in here at their base. They'll take what you say into account but don't have to act on it."

"Agreed." Lucy said quickly in case Jack changed his mind. "Thank you Jack. I will stand with you throughout the rest of the other 30 episodes, but I can't face this one."  
"No problem." Jack said "Just maybe next time tell me that instead of having a full blown panic attack, or at least give us some warning."  
"I'll try." Lucy said with a shrug, now that she knew that she wasn't going to be forced to go to the countryside she felt uncomfortable with all the attention that was on her again.

"And Lucy..." The captain pulled her out of her thoughts, seeing that she was talking herself into a potentially dark place.

"Yeah?"

"We're all friends here, no need to hide as much as you do." She looked shocked that he had noticed, "The others might not have worked it out yet, but I am supposedly in charge of you lot. I tend to notice when one of my team is hiding from the rest of us. It's a team of 6, not that difficult to spot. This was predominantly a team building trip that happened to involve a case and not the other way round, it's not the best team building if the person who needs to get more involved in the team isn't going."  
Ianto gave a small cough in the corner and Jack rolled his eyes but amended his statement, "Ok now that I've recognised that I have a team of 6 and not 5, I'm making a point of keeping an eye on all of you. Better?"

"Much." Ianto said as he stood up, "I'll go pack my staff and text Tosh and Owen to let them know they only have an hour and a half before UNIT get here and we leave, and that Lucy won't be coming with us. All we need to do is come up with an excuse for Gwen - seeing as she still doesn't know."

"Can't we just say that someone needs to stay and keep an eye on the rift?" Lucy shrugged "It's not a complete lie."

"Ianto, you go pack for the trip." Jack ordered, "I need to speak to Lucy about things she needs to do while we're gone"

Ianto nodded and Lucy smiled awkwardly at him, now she had calmed down she couldn't help but feel stupid for how she had panicked earlier. It wasn't like the team was going to fight the Daleks, or the cybermen, or even the Year That Never was that was going to happen next year. These were just humans, simply humans. They shouldn't cause her to panic so much. Out of all of the things that had happened to her since arriving why was it the cannibals who were scaring her?

"What should I know?"  
"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about." Jack said once he was sure that Ianto had gone. "This is a conversation that is long overdue. How are you Lucy?"

"Apart from feeling embarrassed for just having a panic attack…" She shrugged. "I'm fine."  
"Lucy just over a month ago, you killed a woman." Jack spoke calmly and Lucy shifted in her seat.

"Like I said Jack, I'm fine. I mean I'm not fine with killing someone, but she was already dead. So I suppose I didn't really kill her." She tried to look everywhere apart from at her boss who was just sitting in his chair waiting for her to say more.

"What do you want me to say?" She asked minutes later to fill the silence that was becoming overwhelming. "I can't get the image out of my head, my hands covered in blood and the blood spurting out of the bullet holes. The one I put in her. God, she was innocent, just delivering pizza for us like normal. And I killed her. Me, Lucy Jones. I'm just a geek Jack, my life was all about staying quiet, looking after my family, watching TV shows and reading books and now I've killed someone. I… I can't sleep. She doesn't leave me alone Jack, I see her everywhere I look, on the streets when I go out. Haven't been able to eat pizza because every time I try I see the pizza boxes on the floor, covered in blood."

"You know you're right." He said, moving so he was no longer sitting behind his desk, instead he moved to lean against the front of his desk "It's not your fault."

"See logically, logically I get that." Lucy nodded. "I can think that but it doesn't stop the dreams."

"Nothing will."

"So what did you want to talk to me about, apart from to tell me that there is nothing that you can do? I know that. I knew that before I even did it. I didn't need to, I could have pretended I didn't know anything to do with Lisa. But I did, I got to know her knowing how it was going to end. Because Ianto was right, before he tried to take her off the machinery she was still human, at least her mind appeared to be human. She was nearly my friend - as much as you can be someone's friend knowing that you're going to have to kill them and you're not sure if they are human. So what was it you wanted to know Jack? What was it you wanted me to tell you?"

"I wanted you to say the truth."

"I shot and killed a being." She shrugged. "Annie might have already been killed by Lisa, but it looked liked she was alive, it felt like she was alive and I killed her. I can't change that, I can't ever forget that but I can try and ignore the small voice in my mind that calls me a murder that says my sister would hate me for it - because she could never understand - how can anyone understand what it feels like."

"I might." Jack offered.

"Really? Because by killing Annie, by letting her die, I made sure that the Cybermen could not return; they might manage it in the future and there is nothing I can do about that. But all I can do right now, when I wake up and her face is the first thing I see, when I can still feel the blood on my hands." She looked down at them again and could see the stain on them, Lucy automatically started wiping them, as though the stain was real and could be removed. "Is to remind myself that right now the world is safe and that only two people died in a cyberman attack. 2 people that I can never forget but only two. So in answer to your earlier question Captain, I'm fine and I will continue to say that until I actually am and I can look at myself in the mirror again and be happy about what I see." She stood up. "Can I go?"

Lucy wasn't asking for permission and they both knew it, but Jack nodded anyway and she walked out and down to the shooting range. But she didn't shoot anything, just sat there and continued to load and empty the gun simply going through the motions to try and focus on something simple instead of her own continually racing thoughts in an effort to get her mind to stay quiet for just a few moments of peace.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy didn't have much to do that weekend while the others were in the countryside, there was a weevil to catch but apart from that she spent time completing her paperwork, playing in the shooting range with a couple of UNIT soldiers, watching the rift and a couple of the lighter Doctor Who episodes. Her phone rang and she scrambled to find it on the mess that she called her desk.

"Jack? Are you ok? You all there?"

"We're fine, although Gwen was shot but she's fine now. Any problems your end?"

"Nope, we've got a new weevil – I'm thinking Bob - but everything else is fine. Damn lucky, managed to corner him and got the spray before he jumped me. Don't worry I did make sure I had UNIT with me. I've put him next to Janet. Are you sure you are ok? What about Ianto how is he?"

"He's fine, a bit beaten up but apart from that he's ok. We're waiting for the police and then we'll be back."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for not forcing me to go."

"It's ok. I understand why you were so scared."

"The whole universe and I will try I really will, but humans? They can be brilliant but he was right, 'the greatest monsters of them all.' 'Why do you kill people? Because it's fun' 'because it makes me happy'" She sighed and rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes in relief that everything was ok. "Make sure it's the real police yeah Jack? Not that you have any reason to believe otherwise but I'm paranoid."

"Yeah. No problem. Someone will call you just before we leave, or at least send you a text."

"I'll be waiting... I'm thinking of renting some stupid comedies and buy insane amounts of sugar for Ianto and I tonight, and I might buy him some alcohol as well – if he's lucky. I can't imagine he's going to want to sleep, unless Owen has some magic non-nightmare medicine, in which case he's in the wrong job. He should be making millions selling it on the market."

Jack laughed.

"I think Owen's lacking in that particular solution. I'm sure Ianto will be glad you are looking after him, hang on," the phone was muffled for a bit before Jack came back, "he says thank you." Lucy couldn't help but smile, relieved that they were all safe.

"Tell him it's no problem." She replied, "I'm just glad he's ok. It looked bad on the screen... are you sure Owen has given him a full going over and hasn't just stayed at Gwen's side?"

Jack sighed, "He's fine."

"I know... still... it's Ianto. Stench of human flesh probably hit close to home..."

"Lucy"

"...And he was completely battered by them when he tried to save Tosh. Jack, he's still on prescription sleeping tablets from Canary Warf, although he should be coming off them soon I think. And damn I shouldn't have told you that but you know what I mean..."

"Lucy"

"I know" She replied forcing herself to calm down, "I need to stop worrying about you all."

"Hang on the police are here so we'll leave in about half an hour or so."

"'K, see you soon. Bye"

"Bye" Her boss replied and hung up, Lucy sighed in relief that everything had gone ok.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: I honestly did try to write Countrycide but Lucy was just in my head going 'nope' 'nope I'm not going an you can't make me'****, which meant this happened instead. Please let me know what you think and I have finally included how Lucy's feeling after having to kill Lisa/Annie.  
**

**See you next week and I hope you all have a very good Christmas**

**Rea**

**P.S If you like my story go check out IceStar663's (she my best mate) story 'Lost Through Time', it's the same idea except in the Doctor Who world. Hanna turns up in the Asylum of the Daleks. I can promise you as someone whose read everything that she's written on this story and helped her plan things it's well worth a read.**


	14. Chapter 14 - Random Shoes

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 17th November (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

The second Owen said she was fine to go Lucy jumped off the bed in the medbay. "For the record Owen you don't need to stab me so hard to get my blood. Have you found anything interesting yet?"

"Do you actually care?"

"Be nice to know." She shrugged, "I'm tortured every month for this after all.

"Everyone has a medical once a month." Owen said as he pulled off his gloves and washed his hands. "It's not just you, you're not that special."

"No, but you always keep me for longer. I swear my file is bigger than the others."  
"Well when you first you here you were malnourished, with not much muscle and weak bones. Plus I'm running tests on your blood which is why I take a sample each month. But yes I keep you here longer to make sure that you are improving at a steady rate from life before Torchwood." He was careful not to use the term abuse, as he knew it wouldn't go down well with his colleague, even though he was 99% certain that was the case.

"Am I?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.

"You're no longer underweight and you have muscle. So yes I would say you've improved. But in answer to your original question it looks like the base code of the two universes are different, they split off from each other before life was properly formed probably. Which is another reason why I need to keep your blood stocked in such large amounts, no one in the universe is a suitable blood donor, you are completely unique. So if anything happens to you I need your blood in supply." He opened a cuboard. "Look your blood!" Lucy stared at the cold blood and then back at him before deciding not to mention just how weird that felt.

"So I'm a freak."  
"You're... completely unique." Owen replied trying to find the right words.  
"Tomato, tomarto." Lucy said with a shrug. "Can I go and have you got any idea what Gwen is actually working on?"  
"Yes you can go and I think she's trying to find out what happened to the kid who was always following us around - she thinks he may have had an artefact of some sort. Personally I think he was just a geek who got unlucky and she's trying to appease that bleeding heart of hers. Now piss off."  
"Gladly." Lucy replied with a smirk, trying to work out if she should tell Jack or not that they were currently living an episode. It was hardly like 'Random Shoes' was in anyway important and she couldn't really remember anything about it, apart from the fact that the kid was a ghost following Gwen. It was because she was thinking about other things that she hadn't notices that her phone had fallen out of her pocket when she jumped off the bed.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was only after she got an orange alert in the shooting range and she went up to Jack's office that she found out. Owen was standing in front of Jack's desk looking angry and holding Lucy's phone.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked confused, although she didn't like this episode - and was yet to tell Jack that it was an episode - she thought she would have remembered if something important happened

"You left your phone in the medbay." Owen said angrily, Jack just looked resigned to the idea that an argument was going to start.

"Err... sorry. I hadn't realised."

"You had a phone call." He continued and Lucy was confused for a second as she tried to work out who was calling her, her list of contacts was hardly long. It was when she realised who the phone call must have been from that she also realised why Owen was so angry.

"Ahhh."  
"When were you going to say that you didn't retcon Carys?"

"I asked Jack, he said it was ok and that she was my responsibility. What's wrong?" Lucy looked at them confusion written all over her face. "Jack, you know about Carys I asked for your permission. What's this about?"

"I also remember saying that she was your responsibility and not to let anyone else find out."  
"It's not my fault that Owen answered my phone." Lucy argued, "I hardly meant to leave it in the medbay. It was an accident."  
"Why wasn't she retconned anyway?" Owen asked, "What about her was so fucking special?"  
"We know that memories and other sparks of thought can break through the retcon." Lucy said with a sigh as Jack gestured that it was up to her to explain to the angry Londoner why she had broken the secrecy. "Gwen proved that was possible and she only saw a drawing of a knife which Suzie was holding for less than half a minute. She might be in the minority, is certainly in the minority who can break it that easily, but it is entirely possible that with strong enough memories and a strong enough reminder that it can be broken by anyone." Lucy was getting less defensive as she explained her reasoning and started pacing up and down, since it had happened and she had become friendly with the young woman she was more and more certain she had made the right choice. "Carys was trapped in her own body, she was fighting for control while an alien used it to kill through sex. Giving her Retcon is like using a band aid over a gaping wound, it would remove the memories but might not remove the emotions attached to them. And even if it does, what happens the next time she has sex? A link that strong will almost certainly break it, and then we'll have a petrified emotionally vulnerable woman walking the streets of Cardiff with knowledge of Torchwood. She won't be able to talk to anyone about it, they'll lock her up."  
"So you decided not to Retcon her." Owen concluded, feeling less angry now he had heard the train of thoughts which had ended in the breaking of protocol. "It wasn't because you felt guilty about not being about to change anything or because of your future knowledge?"  
"No!" Lucy replied emphatically, shaking her head. "I honestly thought it would be the best thing for her. I can't do much but I'm here on the other side of the phone willing to listen when she needs it."  
"Ok?" Jack asked Owen, "all sorted now. Happy that Lucy isn't abusing her position?"  
"Yeah." Owen agreed as he passed Lucy back her phone. "It was the secret more than anything else."  
"Great, now piss of the pair of you. Gwen seems to be hovering outside my office for something. Lucy, any help?"  
"If it's what I think it is, I know pretty much bugger all apart from the fact we've currently got a ghost. It's a really dull filler episode designed to show off Gwen's 'humanity'"

"Her bloody bleeding heart you mean." Owen scoffed.

"That too." Lucy agreed, Jack just pointed at the door and the pair of them left, leaving it open for Gwen to go in after them.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Eugene _ate_ an alien eye?" Tosh said in surprise.

"The geek actually had something of use?" Owen was more surprised that their stalker wasn't completely insane when he said that he had an alien artefact that they would want to look at.

"From what Gwen said it was a Dogon Sixth Eye" Jack explained, "it's what causes their species to look into the past and understand their lives properly."  
"And he ate it..."

"Yup.

"What does that mean for Eugene?" Tosh was curious, if this thing allowed you to understand your past and he had eaten it just before he died, something must have happened.

"It means a dull Gwen centric filler episode as she tried to work out what happened to Eugene and look more into his life as he watched and followed her as a ghost." Lucy explained. "Honestly I pretty much forgot all about it until it actually happened. And because nothing actually happens I didn't bring it up."

"Fair enough" Owen shrugged. "I'm not sure if it's something I would want to watch more than once."  
"The only reason I've ever seen it more than once is because I'm a completionist when it comes to box setting shows."

"See I get that, but there are some that are so bad that you can just jump over."  
"But then it's not watching the whole series."

"Anyway, getting back on track." Jack said, drawing the attention away from the conversation between Owen and Lucy. Gwen's gone to the funeral and is going to pick up the eye after and maybe pop in on the wake. I said I'll go pick her up after and go on the routine weevil search, any of you coming?"  
"While that sounds fascinating I think I've got a prior engagement to put needles in my eyes." Owen replied sarcastically, all the others quickly begged off as well. Weevil hunts were never fun when you knew where they were, when you were just checking to make sure none had escaped or were in any of the usual areas it was even worse. To the point that a weekly rota had been devised for who was doing that particular chore, Jack wasn't impressed but understood why they weren't interested - it wasn't something he enjoyed doing much either but it was something that was needed.

"Lucy, anything interesting soon?" He asked

"Uhmm... there's five episodes left this series I think, maybe six. This one's the only filler."  
"So at least five big(ish) things happening in the next couple of months."  
"Yeah." She pulled a face. "Sorry."  
"Don't be, at least you can give us some warning. Right;" he threw his coat on and started issuing orders for the rest of the evening "Ianto prep the archives for the Dogon Eye, Tosh I want progress on that translation for tomorrow morning; Owen can you put together what you've learnt about Janet into a legible file instead of just your notes? Lucy I need the finance for the month sorted and can you get on the phone to Parker and see if he'll let us at least look at what he's got so we can take any of the really dangerous things away. I'll see you all tomorrow morning."

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: So I'm hoping you're all looking forward to a christmas surrounded by the people you love. I thought I'd give you a present and give you an extra chapter. I'm sorry it's such a filler but I had nothing I could possibly do with this episode. I'm not a big fan of what I ended up writing either, so sorry that your christmas present is a naff chapter.**

**But *shrugs* there you go, it's better than this being the weekly update surely, waiting all week and getting this?  
I'll see you again tomorrow when I'm going to change things a bit and instead of the next episode (They Keep Killing Suzie) I'm jumping a bit to 1.11 - Out of Time, I'll go back to Suzie later but I need something to happen first.**

**Also I have got a Christmas episode which you'll get in the new year.**

**Please review, I know I'm on loads of alert/favourites lists and it would be a great christmas present to get a bunch of reviews. Even if it's not the best chapter. But I promise Out Of Time tomorrow is better.**

**Merry Christmas.**

**Rea**

**P.S I've edited old chapters and added the dates that it happens on. They don't mean much but it does show the passing of time between 'incidents' quite well.**


	15. Chapter 15 - Out of Time, Part 1

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 18th December (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy stood with Owen, Gwen and Jack on the small runway at Cardiff airport, it was a week and a half before Christmas and they had all conceded that their Christmas was not going to be normal; even though they had time off, the job came first. They were however grateful that this wasn't an enemy they had to fight against, it was simply a spike in the rift that they needed to check out.

Things became more complicated when a plane appeared in the sky asking for permission to land. All Lucy could remember about this story was the fact that it existed and the fate of the individuals that had flown through the rift and that would never be returning.

Jack looked surprised when he first saw the old fashioned plane in the air and he seemed to realise straight away what had happened, he glanced over at Lucy who nodded - both to tell him that he was correct and that she knew what was going to happen. He was getting more and more annoyed with her refusal to tell Gwen the truth but didn't say anything; he had given her a deadline of the 4th May and knew that she would find some way to tell Gwen by then, if not he would do it himself.

"We stay and we help them anyway we can." Jack ordered and they all agreed. It was their job to deal with everything that came through the rift, hostile or not. He interrupted the radio feed and agreed with the pilot when she once more asked for permission to land.

The plane stayed in the air for a few more minutes before coming down to land, a female pilot opened the window and waved at them.

"Hello there." She said before jumping out, an older man and young woman started to slowly get out as well, obviously not as used to climbing in and out of planes. "Apologies for the unplanned touchdown, just hit some rotten turbulence."

"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack said offering his hand

"Diane Holmes, pilot" Diane replied as she shook his hand.

"This is Dr Own Harper, Lucy Smith and Gwen Cooper." Jack said pointing to his team.

"This some sort of secret base?" Diane asked after smiling at each of them, "You must show me around one day Captain, you certainly look the part. How many guns does Miss Smith have on her?"

"Two and a stun gun." Lucy replied immediately, "There was a bit of a scuffle earlier." An hour or so before they had turned up at the airport they had been dealing with a bunch of weevils who had escaped from the sewers, it was the only reason why Ianto and Tosh had not come out to the air field with them, they were busy tidying up.

"I'm not completely sure I actually wanted an answer to my question." Diane replied, looking shocked, "Although you are furthering my belief in a secret base."

"Everything alright?" The older man asked as he walked over after helping a younger girl out of the plane.

"How long before we head off again?" The young woman asked, she looked to be a year couple of years younger than Lucy, about 18 or 19. "My uncle is expecting me."  
"When did you leave?" Jack asked

"About half an hour ago." Diane said

"Which date?"

"Today, December the 18th."  
"Which year?" The three strangers looked at each other confused, not sure if Jack was joking or not. "Which year?" Jack pressed, "I need to know."

"1953"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Who are you people?" Diane asked as the cog door opened and they walked into the hub, Owen walked ahead and pulled on his white lab coat.

"The less you know about us the better, meet the rest of the team."

"Toshiko" Tosh said

"Ianto" Ianto introduced himself with a small smile.

"John Ellis"

"Emma Louise Cowell."  
"Diane Holmes"

"Please, follow me." Owen said with no trace of his normal sarcasm. The three strangers walked through the hub, following Owen to the conference room.  
"At least it wasn't a space ship full of aliens." Gwen said optimistically.

"That might have been better." Jack replied

"It would have put more of a damper on our Christmas though." Lucy pointed out, "Three people we can help is better than aliens we need to fight, I do actually want to reach Christmas day and open some presents. Even though Ianto refused to get a proper Christmas tree and we've only got a small fake one sitting on the sideboard."

"What's wrong with a proper tree?" Jack asked as they started to walk up to the conference room as well.

"Nothing." Lucy replied, "We've had this argument before but he says he doesn't want to have to deal with it and the pine needles getting into the carpet, especially since we'll be busy in work and not actually have time to enjoy it."  
"I've given you the week between Christmas and New Year off, end of the world or alien invasion providing and a couple of days either side. You're just on call at home instead of coming in." Jack pointed out.

"I know and we could put a sheet down underneath the tree to collect the needles but that's apparently beside the point." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "What about you Gwen?" She asked "Got a real tree?" She didn't really care and they all knew it; but she was trying to be nice and they were all aware of that as well.

"We've not got one yet but we will, Rhys and I both grew up with getting proper trees." Gwen replied "It doesn't feel like Christmas without them..."

"Are you talking about Christmas trees?" Ianto asked as they walked into the room.

"Yeah" Lucy replied, "and even Gwen agrees that it's not Christmas without a proper tree. We're actually in agreement about a subject, surely that gives my argument more weight. Gwen and I are on the same side, which means you are in the wrong."

"We've had this argument before, it's just not worth the hassle."

"Can you stop talking about Christmas trees and explain what has happened!" John said loudly and the team were reminded that although this was normal for them, it wasn't for everyone and therefore being able to have a normal conversation while something like this was happening would make it look as though they didn't care.

"Sorry." Jack said sincerely. "I tried to explain things to you in the SUV."

"But how can you travel 50 years in half an hour?" John asked, he clearly hadn't believed them. They could all understand why, it was a difficult thing to ask anyone to believe; every member of Torchwood had struggled with the concept when they first joined the team.

"Your aircraft slipped through a transcendental portal" Jack replied and Lucy rolled her eyes at Jack's insistence in using technical terms when explaining to people, he thought that it made them sound more knowledgeable. Lucy was of the belief that if made them sound like annoying twats who should be punched because they weren't actually explaining anything.

"A what?" Emma asked, and Lucy counted that as a victory for 'speak-in-proper-English'.

"You flew through a doorway in time." She explained, "It was probably the turbulence that you complained about earlier."

"It's some kind of trick, it has to be." John said, not able to believe what had happened. Lucy could understand why he didn't want to believe it, but there was a point where seeing had to be believing and John could see that things were different to what he was used to; the clothes they were all wearing for one thing as well as the technology that had surrounded them while they were driving from the airport.

"Tosh?" Jack said looking at their technician. Tosh coughed uncomfortably and Gwen started putting down photos on the table while the screen showed photos as well.

"Celebrations of the Millennium in your respective home cities. Photographs documenting the development of Cardiff Bay from the '50s to the present day. Blueprints of modern day aeroplanes."

Emma sat down in shock and Lucy could see she was the first one to not only believe what had happened but to realise the implications of it.

"But if all this is true," Diane asked, "then how do we get back?"

"You don't." Jack said simply and seriously, Lucy didn't envy him but her respect continued to grow; Jack was a good man and a good leader, no matter his past life before the Doctor. "According to history, your plane never returned. I'm sorry."

"What's going to happen to us?" Diane asked

"Never mind about us." John said. "What happened to everyone else? Our families"

"We're going to do our best to find out." Lucy promised them automatically, this case hit too close to home, all she could remember was how it felt to learn that she would never see her sister again, that she was stuck here. Jack gave her an odd look but nodded.

"Give us half an hour and we'll find as much as we can. Meanwhile would you mind going with Owen so he can give you a quick medical? We want to get you into the system as quickly as possible."

The three of them looked as though their world had fallen away beneath them and Lucy felt her heart go out to them, she had remembered how they each handled the situation and knew that there really was nothing she could do to help apart from listen when they needed it. Owen left the conference room and walked down to the autopsy/medical area and John guided the two women after him - they were in still in shock but John had automatically taken on the role of the parent and was obviously trying to push his emotions to the side to deal with at a later point.

"What do we do with three people who are lost? This time it's not monsters" Jack said as they all sat in the conference room watching Owen set the screen up and their guests reactions to the technology.

"We help them." Lucy said simply looking back up at Jack and taking her eyes off said lost people. "You helped me, and I was more lost than them, I lost my universe. Let me talk to them." Jack nodded but the others didn't seem as sure. Gwen just looked shocked and Lucy suddenly realised that she had 'outed' herself to the Welshwoman but right now was not the time to be worrying about it "I'm not saying Jack gives them a job in Torchwood, but I'm saying we give them what they need to set up a new life and to be happy. We give them an ear that will listen to their worries and their complaints without thinking them stupid. We owe it to them to give them that, if we are in charge of the rift then we are responsible for everything and not just the monsters."

"Ok" Jack stopped her before she could continue. "We do everything we can to help them. Lucy you need to speak to them, let them know your story."

"Not a problem."

"Tosh, you need to make them exist. Put back stories out there, people who lived next door, that kind of thing. Ianto you help her, see if you can lay an actual paper trail as well as an electronic one."

"No problem"

"Gwen, you work with Lucy in getting them settled in. I know you've got loads of questions you want to ask but now really isn't the time to do it, wait until it's quieter. You two take the two girls and I'll focus on John. But first we need to find out what happened to the people they loved, I want as much as we can find in the next half hour."

"No problem."

And with that they all left the room to get to their jobs.

"Hi" Lucy smiled at the time displaced people who all looked confused and scared. "So we're going to help you in every way we can. And although the others can't relate to you I can."

"Are you from another time as well?" Emma asked.

"Another universe." Lucy replied, "I was just walking around Cardiff in my world and I ended up here, I'm in the pages of a storybook but everything is slightly different. I've changed things that I didn't know I could and I've had to watch things happen that I wanted to stop. But I lost my whole world, I lost my mother and my younger sister – Becky she's 9 and means the world to me, but her birthday this year is liekly the last one I'll ever see." She smiled sadly, although she didn't look at Ianto who was trying to catch her eye. The others all looked at each other surprised by this piece of knowledge, Lucy rarely gave anything out about her home life and they had known her for seven months now and she was telling people she hadn't even known for a couple of hours. "The point is I know what it feels like to lose everything. In this world my parents never met so I don't exist and neither does Becky. I tried to find my parents, to see if they were better off without us but it didn't matter because they weren't really my parents. Just people with their faces and names."

"But my son might still be alive. And he's still my son." John argued and Lucy could see that she wasn't getting through to him, he was determined to be stubborn and try and find links where they no longer existed.

"I know that it's not completely the same, but what I'm saying is I know how important finding any link to home can be and how when you find it you just want to hold on and never let go. You do need to hold on to that, but at some point you need to live in the world you find yourself in and not in the past – literally in your case. Don't forget them, but remember them fondly. If this had happened to Becky I can promise you I would be telling her to go see the world and do everything she possibly could and not to hold back because of me. The world you've found yourself in can be horrible and life is more fast paced and some social etiquettes that you're used to have gone. But you get moments of beauty. You can get to the other side of the world in a day, all the sights of the world that you have dreamed about are at your finger tips; go find them. And go find them with laughing memories of family. Stand in Australia and remember the way a friend would laugh, or a family member, the way their face would change when they smiled. Times that you thought you would die because you were laughing too hard. We can't control what brought you here, we only clean up after it. But we can give you lives, we can help you get settled into this world, help you find out where you belong. And then at the end of the day when the world scares you we can be someone you come back to, someone you shout and scream at because you want your family more than anything else in the world and time has ripped you away from then. And after you've shouted and screamed and thrown things at walls and destroyed all our paperwork, we'll smile and help you back up again. Life is for living so we are going to help you go out there and live it, every day at a time. I promise you that."

She could see her impromptu speech had gotten through to the two girls although she wasn't sure about John. She only hoped she could change his fate although she knew it was unlikely and that the best she could do was to make his time here a slightly happier one. She could understand the pain he was going through and knew that there was nothing to stop it.

Lucy suddenly realised that everyone was staring at her and she tried not to blush.

"Well I'll help you. Owen will just grumble and get you pissed. So..." She shuffled uncomfortably on the spot, before looking up at Jack pleading for help. Thinking she had been embarrassed enough and that Gwen had finally find out Lucy's secret Jack spoke up and continued for her.

"What she means is that we'll all help in any way we can. Now we've got medical records for you and Owen has updated any information with the results from his medical we're going to get you set up in a hostel for a couple of nights until we can get you a flatshare or something, whatever you want."

"I had my own shop and a house!" John was not impressed, "And now you tell me I'm going into a home of some kind and you'll get me a flatshare."

"What are we supposed to do?" Jack asked calmly, with a sinking feeling as he realised what the answer was going to be.

"Get me back home with my family."

"We can't. You died."

"But we're not dead." Emma said confused, "and if it was some kind of window can't we just go back the other way?"

"It doesn't work like that." Tosh said, "for a start we've only got a rough guess where the window actually was, although I could try to use technology to pinpoint it. But even if we know the exact point in space the rift blip occurred it doesn't mean that it will occur then or that it will send you back to the same time. It's almost completely unknown."  
"We just take care of the shitty aftermath." Owen grumbled, "the actual event is alien to us." Jack gave him a 'look' for his sarcasm but shrugged in agreement.

"We thought maybe you'd like to go shopping for clothes and food? Ianto and Lucy could take you, give you some time to get to know what Cardiff is like now and how the world has changed and also to let you talk to them if you need to. Plus Ianto needs to buy some more coffee, we're running low."  
Ianto raised an eyebrow in disappointment and annoyance at Jack for volunteering him for the job.  
"I think we've got enough left for 5 mugs worth, sir." He replied "Someone will just have to go without."

"Now _that's_ harassment." Jack joked before turning serious, "But if you two could actually take them out."

"Sure." Ianto shrugged, "It's my job to clean up after the rift after all. Lucy?"

"I'm in." Lucy nodded, "If we go to the big Asda they should be able to get everything."

"Tosh, if you can find somewhere for them to stay while they are out shopping, that way Ianto can take them straight there once they are done."

"No problem." Tosh left the conference room and went straight back to her desk, immediately getting on with what had been asked of her.

"Is that all we are now?" John asked angrily, "A job? A mess to clean up after?"

"Not at all." Jack said, still trying to be as calming as possible. "It is simply us trying to do our jobs in making sure that this goes as smoothly as possible."

"What's Asda?" Emma asked

"It's a big chain supermarket." Lucy replied, "It sells clothes and food and bits of everything, that way you'll have more than your suitcase."

"Jack!" Tosh called, "I've got two rooms for them sorted. Managed to get somewhere on first go."  
"Tosh you're a star." Jack replied, "Change of plan, we'll find out the basics of what happened to your family, get you sorted in the hostel and then we'll take you shopping tomorrow; once you've had some sleep and got a bit more used to the idea."

"I'm not sure I'll ever be used to it." John muttered.

"It'll be one hell of an adventure." Diane said with a sigh. Emma looked at Lucy for a bit.

"You come from a different universe, really?"  
"Really really." Lucy replied "and a couple of years in the future, so the technology is roughly the same. It's not quite what you are going through but similar."

"How long did it take you to get used to it?"

"I'm still trying. Most days it's fine, but there are some where it's not and it takes all my energy to just get out of bed, or there are others where all I can do is look at where I am in wonder."

The team split up as they started the basic research on the families of the lost souls that had ended up in their care. Jack had John, Owen obviously had his eyes on Diane and Gwen was determined to look after Emma. Lucy, Tosh and Ianto were stuck doing the research and although it wasn't Lucy's speciality it was still interesting and as it was all a matter of looking at public record she didn't need to use any of Tosh's 'cheat sheets' either.

An hour or so later and they were moving the group into the hostel; Tosh had stayed at the hub to start work on forging their identities and Ianto had also stayed to help and to tidy up the day as well as continue with his normal duties.

Lucy and Gwen led Diane and Emma to their room, while Jack took John to his.

"We know that you don't know each other but thought you might want to stay with a familiar face who knows what you are going through." Lucy explained.

"Fine by me." Diane shrugged, Emma seemed to lighten up at the idea of not being completely alone.

Gwen opened the door, "It's a bit basic." She said slightly apologetically  
"Not when you've lived in barracks." Diane replied with a smile as she put her bag on the lower bunk bed allowing Emma to take the normal bed. "I'm going to freshen up, I'll leave you to it."

"I was going to unpack." Emma said, "Which wardrobe do you want?"  
"I don't mind." Diane shrugged, and walked out of the room and down the corridor to the bathroom.

Emma started unpacking the suitcase, it had a couple of dresses, a teddy, a wash bag, and a wrapped present. Lucy couldn't help but remember the bag that had travelled with her; an ipod, loads of DVDs, some posters, t-shirts and a book. Emma may be more out of her time but she was better prepared than Lucy had been.

"Who else is here?" Emma asked

"A couple of young girls." Gwen replied, "Nice dress." She said as Emma found a coat hanger to put it away with.  
"Thank you. I made it myself."

"Where are you from?"

"Bristol."

"What were you going to Dublin for?" Lucy asked pulling herself out of her thoughts and joining in the conversation again.

"Auntie Nora's ill and Uncle Finn can't manage the children. It'll be good practice for when I have children of my own mum says."

Lucy caught Gwen's eye and they both pulled a small face at the idea of 'having' to have children by a certain age, but the equally both silently agreed not to mention it. Emma walked back over to her suitcase and pulled the teddy bear close to her chest, the bell around its neck rang slightly. "She's gone next door so Uncle Finn can telephone." Emma continued "She'll know I'm missing by now."

"Emma, she found out in 1953" Gwen said softly. "Over 50 years have passed, remember?." Lucy winced and decided to soften the blow slightly.

"But apart from that you're right. Relatively speaking they'll know you're missing by now. But you can't live your life like that."

Emma sat down on the bed and both Torchwood agents could see tears in her eyes.

"What will she think happened?" Lucy stayed leaning against the wall but Gwen moved from against the bunk bed to sit next to Emma, "It must have been like one of those murders where they never found the body."

"The seemed to think the plane went down in the sea." Emma started crying and Gwen pulled her into a hug.

Lucy knew it was pathetic but she felt she had to say something.

"It will get better, Emma. I promise. And at least you've got your teddy to hug. Mine's in a different world. I was out shopping and sightseeing when I was taken by the rift. I had pretty much nothing of use on me at all." Emma sobbed a bit more before eventually lifting her head and gave Lucy a small smile.

"You mean I'm lucky?"

"In regards to clothes and things to bring I'm saying you were _luckier."_ Lucy amended, "Nothing about either one of our situations can be called lucky."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: So Gwen's finally found out! This seemed the perfect time for it to happen. Hope you all had a good Christmas and I'll see you again in the New Year**

**Rea**

**P.S. Reviews make me happy and it is Christmas... *puppy dog eyes***


	16. Chapter 16 - Out of Time, Part 2

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy managed to get a taxi back home after leaving the hostel which meant that Gwen was unable to ask questions about what she had accidentally said. It was easy to see that she was annoyed about the situation as well as the fact she hadn't been told. Lucy was also aware that there was only so long before Gwen got over the shock and Emma, John and Diane were able to distract her before she started asking questions that Lucy didn't want to answer.

She let herself into the flat to find Ianto plating up dinner.

"Ianto you're a star."

"I know." He replied

"And perfectly modest too." She grabbed knives, forks and glasses for them and sat down at the table. They ate in silence for a bit, Ianto was giving her sideways looks and she eventually put her fork down and stared back at him. "What?"

"Gwen found out today and this is a bit close to home."

"I know and I know."

"You ok?"  
"I'm fine."

"Really? Because you said you were fine after Lisa, or the cannibals, or when Owen had to..."

"That was then and this is now." She said interrupting him and going back to eating her food but Ianto just gave her a look so she sighed and stopped again. "Ok so it's not ideal and I know she's going to be asking questions and nagging for ages. But it's not like we are best friends and as I'm not changing anything it doesn't really make much of a difference."  
"Except you know her life for the next couple of years."

"I know bits of her life." Lucy corrected, quickly doing some maths. "Including this one I know another 16 Torchwood cases. It's not the same thing."  
"Do her and Rhys stay together?"

"Yeah." Lucy said with a shrug, she knew that technically she shouldn't tell Ianto anything but she was also aware that he wouldn't tell anyone and it was hardly a major plot point.

"So you are aware that even though she's been having an affair with Owen she stays with her boyfriend. You _don't_ think that's important or something she'll want to know about."  
"I don't know Ianto. I just know that she's going to be on my back. But it's not like she thinks. It sucks having future knowledge and not being able to act on it."  
"Well _I_ know that."

"I know you do, and the others think the same thing. Jack drilled it into your heads when I appeared, what it meant and the do's and don'ts. Gwen didn't have that, and you know she's a romantic about these kind of things. Can we just get on with dinner please and drop the topic of Gwen?"  
"Sure."

They ate for a bit longer before Ianto spoke again.

"So you are completely fine with the idea of looking after people stolen by the rift, and getting them used to a world that's not there's."

"Yes!" She said exasperatedly "It's not like I didn't know it was going to happen."

"Just wanted to check" He smirked at her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all got into work early the next morning, at least Gwen and Owen did; Tosh, Ianto and Lucy all got in early enough anyway. Although they had a 'situation' it didn't change the fact that it wasn't enough to disrupt their 'normal' work if they wanted to have time off for Christmas.

Ianto and Lucy went straight down to the archives, Ianto to continue sorting through it and Lucy to look up more information for the weapons archive she was still setting up, it was a bigger task than she had originally thought, especially as she has no idea what some of their items did and didn't want to turn out like Adam, hoarding things that might have been weapons but were actually broken or hair dryers. Tosh got back to work making a life for their 'guests', while Owen and Gwen sat at their computers getting on with paperwork and trying to get away with doing the minimum, like they often did when they were bored and had no project on the go.

At midday, John, Diane and Emma walked into the tourist office, where Ianto met them and they walked into the hub and then into Jack's office with Gwen and Lucy. After getting coffee, or tea, and checking how they were and how they were coping, Jack passed them over the passports and IDs that Tosh had made; sometimes it helped being a top secret part of the government, they weren't _technically_ forgeries.

"These will be your means of identification for the authorities." Jack explained, "We've set up bank accounts for you, but for now we'll be giving you a daily allowance so that you can practice with the currency and money management."

"David Ward?" John wasn't impressed

"Sally-Anne Hope" Diane read

"Deborah Morrison, and it's spelt how Deborah Kerr spells it." Emma seemed to be the only one happy with her new name.

"Your background stories should incorporate the skills you already have. For instance, John you could have run a corner shop."

"No"

"We can fake references." Lucy said, "It's no trouble, just give us a rough idea of what they should say."

"You can't take away our names. Did your name change when you ended up here?"  
"No" Lucy admitted, "But then I never existed in this world, you did."

"No one's going to notice, it's been nearly 50 years. For God's sake, it's all we've got left. It's my son's name, it's the name above my shop." He slapped the passport back onto the desk and walked out into the main area. Emma and Diane looked uncomfortably at each other and Jack sighed and followed the older man out.

"You're right, I didn't think. You should keep your name." He glanced over at Tosh who had previously been pretending that she wasn't listening to the conversation. Tosh nodded and immediately got to work making the passports again with the real names on.

"While we let Tosh get on with that how about that shopping trip?" Lucy suggested trying to lighten the mood.

"Good idea." Jack agreed, "Ianto!"

"Yes sir." Ianto appeared from the small kitchen.

"You are going shopping."  
"I was hoping you'd forgotten sir."

"No such luck. And it was your girlfriend who reminded me."  
"Lucy is not my girlfriend sir." Ianto said at the same time that Lucy made a sound of annoyance

"You keep saying that and one day we might believe you." Jack laughed "Come on, you know you want to get more coffee."  
"I can't think of anything I would love to do more, sir."

"Brilliant."

They grabbed their coats and Gwen went back to her desk before Lucy remembered something.

"Gwen can you go down to the range and practice for a bit? You're short on your hours from last week and weren't up to your normal standard with those weevils."

Gwen sighed but nodded.

"Not a problem. I'll do it while you're out."

"Brilliant, thanks." Lucy turned to see the rest of the shopping group waiting for her and the confusion on the time traveller's faces. "I'm in charge of weapons." She said with a shrug, "it's up to me to make sure these guys get enough practice so that they are as safe as possible in the field.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I suggest you use £25 for food and £20 for luxury, like cigarettes or magazines" Ianto said as they walked up to Asda, the journey had mainly been either silence or answering questions about the modern world and what had happened to certain famous people.

"My dad only made £10 a week."

"Inflation." Lucy said with a shrug "Things get more expensive, and people get more money."

As they approached the shop the automatic doors opened stopping the time travellers in their tracks. It was starting to hit home for Ianto and Lucy just how difficult it was going to be for these people, at least for Lucy the technology was pretty much the same. For the three visitors they not only had to get used to losing everyone they knew they had to adapt to the technology as well, and 21st Century Britain relied on a lot of technology. Seeing their reactions to a simple thing, such as an automatic door, meant they had a long way to go before they didn't have to worry about Torchwood's new responsibilities.

"How did it do that?" Diane asked

"It's automatic." Ianto replied "It knows you are there." Lucy discreetly elbowed him to stop him being quite so sarcastic, the others weren't picking up on it but Lucy could hear it in his voice, especially in his explanation of 'automatic'.

"But how?"  
"There are wave bouncing detectors which emit high frequency radio waves," Ianto started explaining "and then look for reflections..."  
"Bananas!" Diane exclaimed interrupting Ianto, she rushed into the shop and the other two followed.

"Of course bananas are far more interesting." He said dryly, and Lucy laughed.

"I enjoyed your science talk."  
"You already know it."  
"Not properly, I've never really thought about it. But the minute she asked I kinda guessed." They followed the three and grabbed baskets for them as well as one for them, Lucy figured she may as well get their shopping done while she was here.

"Look at all this." John said gazing around the shop as Lucy passed him his basket. "We'd just come off rationing in '53."

"Yeah, sorry, we are a consumer society."

"It's bloody fantastic."

"So I'm thinking I'll give the girls their baskets and quickly pick up what we need - chicken, milk, ham, cheese, etc. and check in with you whenever I bump into you and then we can all stand in the Christmas traffic jam together." Lucy said

"You're supposed to be helping me with them." Ianto pointed out with a raised eyebrow, John watched the scene with slight amusement.

"Do you want to come back out later and do our shopping?" Lucy replied staring straight back at him. "Remember that by the time we finish work the queues will be even longer. Unless you are volunteering to be here at 3am tomorrow morning, in which case, be my guest. But we need to get food ASAP, the kitchen is looking bare."

"Fine." Ianto sighed, "But can you take one of the girls with you?"

"Sure. I've got Emma. Have fun. Anything you want for dinner in the next couple of days? I was planning on doing the Christmas shop online but it is more difficult with our jobs. We never know what time we'll be in."

"I'll do it after my night shift next week. And maybe stuff for lasagne and a chicken tikka?"

"Sounds like a plan, 3am shop it is. And I'll make sure to grab everything, must dash. Don't want to lose sight of Emma after all."

Ianto sighed and John smirked at him as Lucy went off, passing a basket to Diane on her way.

"Hey Emma." Lucy said as she caught up with the younger woman. "I'm your chaperone around this building we call a _super_market."  
"Thanks." Emma grinned at her, "I don't really know what to get."  
"Well I've got to get some of the normal dull stuff for us, milk, cheese, ham, pasta, tomato sauce, as well as other stuff, chicken, mince meat, bacon, peas and stuff like that."  
"Sounds like a good place to start." Emma agreed feeling relieved that she had a starting point.

"I thought so, and then when you've got enough for a few meals I vote we visit the sweet aisle."  
"There's a whole isle for sweets?"

"Yup" Lucy grinned, "and another for biscuits and crisps."  
"I definitely want to look there."  
"I thought you would."

The two walked round the shop comfortably, Lucy pointing different things out and Emma getting food that was familiar as well as trying as few things on the taste stall.

Just as they were turning into the sweet aisle, Ianto appeared behind them. He put a few extra things in Lucy's basket and glanced in Emma's mentally calculating how much she'd spent, ignoring any potential offers. Lucy was slightly suspicious that Ianto had managed to time his re-appearance so perfectly but decided not to mention it.

"How much food money have I got left?"

"£15.40" Ianto replied.

"It's scary that you can do that." Lucy commented.

"I have a good memory for prices of things."

Emma walked down the aisle throwing sweets into her basket and Ianto followed her making continuous calculations.

"£12.10, you'll ruin your teeth. Lucy put those back, we do not need five boxes of malteasers."

"You sound like my Mum." Emma laughed. "What are malteasers?"  
"Addictive and yummy." Lucy replied, "see Ianto, I'm getting them as part of their continued education about..." she stumbled for the right excuse and Ianto raised his eyebrow at her. "... about how society has evolved and with it so has the food we eat and enjoy." The effect was ruined when she ended it by sticking her tongue out and saying 'HA!'

"And you need five boxes to do that?"  
"Well one for each of them and two for me?"

"So not five for you then, because you are hopelessly addicted to chocolate even though it can make you hyper if you eat too much of it. And for the record _you_ can be downright scary when you have a sugar rush."

"You sound like our next door neighbours." Emma said suddenly, "They had been married for 25 years and he still pretended to get annoyed every time we came back from doing the shopping cause she would buy a small bit of chocolate instead of something sensible."

"We're not together." Lucy and Ianto both said quickly.

"But you live together." Emma was confused.

"We're flat mates." Ianto explained. "We share a house and the communal areas but we each have our own room."

"We live together but we're not 'together together'"

"I think I understand" Emma said slowly as though she was still getting her head around the concept before changing the topic. "So should I get some malteasers then?"

"Definitely"

Ianto tried to take a couple out of Lucy's basket but she quickly moved it so he missed, "Just spotted Diane, she's at the end of the aisle looking at electrics."

"They sell films in boxes and you can watch them at home." Diane said when they joined her

"They're called DVDs." Lucy said "Digital something disks." She glanced at Ianto  
"Versatile, Digital Versatile Disks."

"I love going to the pictures." Emma looked through the shelves and spotted a couple she recognised, they were standing at the 'classic Christmas film' stand. Lucy grabbed a couple she hadn't seen before as well as a few she had, Ianto rolled his eyes at her predictability and grabbed a couple more before going to talk to John who was staring at the covers of magazines.

When the pair returned Ianto had a few more DVDs that ended up in Lucy's basket.

"You like films and these DVDs things then?" Diane asked

"With our busy lives, having the time to sit and watch a DVD is bliss, so I make sure the collection continues to grow at almost every possibility - the Queen gives us enough money to spend it on frivolous things like this."  
"The Queen pays you?" Emma asked shocked, "Queen Elizabeth?"  
"Yup, still going strong on the throne, she's got two grandsons as well - William (the eldest) and Harry. And we answer only to the royal family, the idea being that way we are not involved in politics and stuff like that, doesn't always work but she's happy to let us do our own thing as long as we can say why we thought it was the best plan at the time. Anyway, we've got nearly two weeks off work for Christmas." Lucy explained, "I'm not planning on leaving the house most days, instead I'll stay in and watch these and eat chocolate. Enjoy not risking my life."

"Sounds like a nice plan, but you have to go out." Diane said.

"I'll go down to the hub to keep up practice, and we'll be on call to deal with any possible situation, but apart from that." She shrugged. "I'll be a hermit, one with friends. And I could meet up with them every ten years and talk about caves; it's good fun, for a hermit." They all stared at her and Lucy walked over to the queues for the tills, muttering about how 'people never understand my quotes and jokes anymore'.

Half an hour later they were almost ready to leave the shop, Emma was the only person left and that was just going through as Diane walked up to them holding a box of cigarettes and looking confused and upset.

"What does that mean?" She asked turning the box so they could see the words 'smoking kills' in big letters.

Lucy immediately busied herself in helping Emma put her food and things into bags, Ianto gave her a small glare before trying to explain to Diane why cigarettes were bad for you and how they could kill you. Diane was not impressed.

They walked out of the shop holding two or three bags each and walked back to Ianto's car and started piling them into the boot.

"Wouldn't mind seeing the Stadium on the way back." John said casually

"We can go past it," Ianto said as he shut the boot, "it's on our way. Lucy you'll have to keep that bag by your feet."  
"No problem. If we're dropping John off at the Stadium to look around, I'll jump out and move into the front."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What did Lucy mean yesterday? Why will no one explain?" Gwen asked as she followed Jack to his office. Since she had heard Lucy's impassioned speech yesterday; she had been dying to find out what the hell was going on. As Lucy and Ianto had taken John, Diane and Emma out shopping and were due back any second, this seemed the best time to ask.

"It's not my place to say." Jack replied, saying the same thing he'd said every time Gwen asked, only it appeared that this time she wasn't going to let it go.

"That's not good enough Jack, I deserve to know, I thought you trusted me."  
"I do." Jack said harshly, "But this isn't my secret to tell, it's Lucy's and she doesn't trust you."

"You all knew about it, I was the only one who was surprised."  
"We were all working for Torchwood when it happened. I don't understand why you suddenly care so much, you don't know the reasons why Tosh, Owen or Ianto joined. Why does it matter how Lucy did?"  
"Because it's obviously something important. She said she came from a different universe Jack, one where we are all stories. Isn't that the least bit suspicious to you?"  
"No, why?"

"Because that doesn't actually happen in real life."

Jack just stared at her.

"You work for a Top Secret group for the monarchy, our job is to stop aliens from taking over the planet and to keep people safe from a rift in space and time. A couple of weeks ago some kid ate an alien eye, became a ghost and saved your life, and yet you can't believe in the possibility of alternate universes?"

"But..."

"Just get back to work Gwen." Jack ordered, "if you want to talk to anyone about this talk to Lucy. The rest of us will tell you the same thing, we may not have been happy about it but it wasn't our place to say anything."

"Fine." Gwen walked out of his office determined to talk to Lucy, she wasn't happy about having been kept out of the loop - she had been in Torchwood for 4.5 months now and the idea that they were still keeping secrets from her was not something she was happy with.

"When were you going to tell me?" Gwen asked as soon as she saw that Lucy had walked back in alone and had seated herself on the sofa with her laptop trying to find out everything she could about the lives of the family members of Diane, John and Emma. They had dropped them off at the hostel before coming back to the hub, promising to check on them later in the day with more information for them about what had happened in the past 50 years, on both their family and about culture as a whole.

"5th May" Lucy said not even looking up from her laptop, "I'm a bit busy right now Gwen, doing my job. Shouldn't you be doing the same?" She asked sarcasm dripping off each word.

"_May_?" Gwen ignored the second comment and focussed on the answer to her question, "I would have been working here for nearly half a year then, you were going to wait that long to tell me?"  
"If I had my way I would have never told you" She said taking a gulp of coffee and scribbling down some more notes before shutting the laptop and walking down to her office downstairs. Gwen followed her still asking questions.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

What they weren't expecting was a distressed call from Emma at dinner time. Owen was out for the evening taking care of Diane; they were aware of the attraction between the doctor and the pilot and although none of them thought it was a good idea they would all stay silent. It was not their place to say anything about each other's personal lives if people didn't want to talk about it, something Lucy had to remind Gwen of fairly often. Talking about life outside of the hub was fine if you started the conversation or volunteered the information at a previous date, being nosey and asking anything beyond - did you have a good weekend off?- was not.

After receiving the phone call Gwen and Lucy both grabbed their coats and headed out of the door together.

"What do you think is wrong?" Gwen asked as got into the driver's seat of her car and Lucy sat in the front passenger.

"I don't know, but she didn't sound happy. Maybe it was just the realisation of everything, she's had an exhausting day."  
"You went _food_ _shopping_." Gwen said in a voice that didn't think it was _that_ exhausting

"We took them into outer-city Cardiff which is still fairly busy compared to what they are used to and Ianto had to explain how the automatic doors worked because they'd never seen anything like them before. They'd also never been in a building that big and it was only your average sized Asda. They only got here yesterday Gwen, it's one hell of a shock." Gwen shrugged at Lucy's response understanding what she was saying and accepting that she was probably right.

"I wouldn't know." She said scathingly, still annoyed that no one had told her the truth behind the story of how Lucy joined Torchwood.

"Oh for god's sake Gwen grow up. It's not fun, I lost everyone I knew. Everyone I ever loved or hated or bumped into in the street on a semi regular basis. And on top of that I'm living in a TV show, I know what's going to happen - the basic plot line of most and a more in depth idea of others. Why do you think I didn't go with you and the team building trip in the Beacons? It wasn't just because someone needed to watch the rift, it was because I was scared of what you were going to find. I was helping Ianto to try and fix Lisa even though I knew that it was going to fail and she would kill the doctor, Jack, the pizza delivery girl - she almost killed Ianto and in the show it was you who ended up on the conversation table. I don't like knowing that, I could tell you what's going to happen next year and it would haunt your dreams because it's fixed. I can't stop it."  
Gwen didn't take her eyes off the road and turned into the hostel car park without saying a word. Lucy tried once more to get through to her, and this time instead of being annoyed she just sounded tired.

"I didn't tell you Gwen, because it doesn't change anything if you know or not and it meant I could pretend to be normal, outside of being a Torchwood Agent." Gwen slammed the car door shut and looked at Lucy over the roof.

"I'm not happy about this, but I suppose I'm sorry for overreacting." Lucy figured that was the best she was going to get so didn't push for anything more and the pair walked inside, not quite sure what they would find or how they would deal with it.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Happy new year!**

**Sorry I'm a day late, I've been really busy with work, but I have managed to FINALLY complete Reset, so I am now more than halfway through series 2 - Whoop.**

**I just want to mention something that was said in a review about Lucy and Gwen. It's not that Lucy wants to kick Gwen out of Torchwood, she does have some form of respect for the other woman in a professional capacity. It's more that Lucy is jealous, Gwen's had a good life and fell into Torchwood by accident. Whilst Lucy hasn't had such a good life and was failed by the system that Gwen puts so much trust in and therefore see's the world in much less of the black and white that Gwen sees it in. The tension between them does die down especially after the inevitable shouting match (which you won't get for a few more months yet. It's over Jack's dead body at the end of ep 1.13 - sorry to have to make you wait but it is worth it. Both of them rip into each other!)**

**See you next week (on time) for the last part of Out of Time**

**Rea**


	17. Chapter 17 - Out of Time, Part 3

"I don't see why she had to get you two involved." John said as he laid the table

"She called us, she was upset." Gwen replied.

"She was drinking." John said as though it explained everything, Lucy rolled her eyes. It was obvious that due to her age Emma was going to adapt to the world a lot easier than John or Diane, but John seemed blind to the changes around him. No, not blind, he was fully aware that the world had changed he was just being stubborn, digging his heels in and keeping with the old routines and ideas - determined that they were better than anything that anyone else could come up with.

"I had half a glass." Emma said defensively.

"Enough to make a show of yourself. We're not meant to draw attention to ourselves, we're not the same as them. We can't trust anyone"  
"You're both human." Lucy said annoyed it the older man and his unwillingness to change "Just from a different culture with different beliefs. That makes you almost exactly the same as anyone living in any of the big cities. Plenty of different beliefs live together side by side every day. Why shouldn't you trust anyone? Because they don't think the same as you, sounds like the ideas we went to war against in WWII."

"Do not compare me to those abominations." John shouted at Lucy, "I did my time and duty. I am nothing like them."  
"Then let Emma live her life." Lucy pleaded, "Drinking half a glass of alcohol and singing and dancing with friends is nothing. It sounds like something I would do, only I wouldn't need the half glass. She didn't do anything wrong apart from act her age."

Gwen turned to Emma while Lucy was still squaring up to John.

"Will you be ok now Emma?" She asked, John responded before Emma had the chance to say anything.

"Don't worry, I won't let her out of my sight again." Lucy could feel her temper rising and struggled to keep it under control with the knowledge that the man she was so angry with was a product of his time and completely lost in a new world, grabbing hold of anything that he could recognise so he could try and make sense of things.

"I don't like liver." Emma said, anger causing her voice to shake.

"Sit down, young lady and be grateful for what you're given" John snapped

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Emma." Gwen whispered.

"Only my _dad_ gets to talk to me like that." Emma continued, John folded his arms as though she was a small child having a temper tantrum. "I'm never going to see him again am I? Or my mum, or my best friend, or my dog. And I miss them! And I hate this filthy stinking place" She burst into tears and left the room. After a quick, silent exchange with Gwen, Lucy followed her. She didn't trust her temper if she stayed in the same room as John for much longer. Gwen followed a couple of seconds later, a frown on her face.

"Let's go deal with an upset teenager" Lucy said as a way of breaching the silence, Gwen took a deep breath then nodded.

"She can't stay here with him."

"No." Lucy agreed, "someone would get hurt and it's not fair on them. They didn't know each other before this."  
"She could stay on my sofa." Gwen said with a shrug, "It's not perfect but..."

"Ours isn't big enough." Lucy said annoyed, "Won't Rhys mind?"  
"Nah. I'll just tell him its family stuff." Lucy stopped and stared at Gwen, causing the Welsh woman to stop as well and look self-conscious. "What?"  
"That is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Don't tell him that."  
"Why not?"  
"Because it is the easiest thing in the world to check." Lucy looked at her as though she was crazy, to someone like Lucy who kept major secrets from everyone else for the majority of her life this seemed to be obvious and common sense. But to Gwen who had lived a relatively normal life and Torchwood was the first major secret she had ever kept, it hadn't even crossed her mind. "It's Christmas, people are going to call and if Rhys mentions that you're having a nice time in the lead up to Christmas with your cousin, they'll tell him that she doesn't exist."  
"I... I didn't think."

"Tell him, she's related to me, but I'm busy with work. Besides we've not seen each other for years and because I'm so busy she's spent time with you. If you say she was supposed to be staying at with a friend and her boyfriend - they broke up so she was left with nowhere and I don't have enough space. That way you can say you're doing a favour for a colleague and a new friend and he can't find out you're lying."

Gwen stared at her for a couple of seconds before nodding, she didn't like lying to Rhys but she also didn't want him to find out that she had become so capable of lying to him.

They knocked on Emma's door and heard her try to get control of her tears before she opened the door to them.

"Pack your bag." Gwen said as she walked into the room. Emma stared at her.

"What?"  
"Pack your bag." Gwen repeated, Emma quickly opened her cupboard door and started pulling things out.

"Why?" She asked curious but glad to be getting out of the hostel.

"Are we or are we not responsible for your health, happiness and general well being until you reach the point where you can live in this world without us (and even then we'll keep the bank account reasonably healthy and still keep an eye on you)?" Lucy asked sarcastically and Emma nodded. "Well then, in our opinion it is not good for your health or happiness to stay here. It won't help you settle into this time if you stay with John due to his mistrust of the modern world and his determination to act as though nothing has changed."  
Emma grinned and then her face fell.

"But where am I going to stay, Toshiko said this was the only place with rooms that she could find."  
"You'll stay with me." Gwen said as she put items into the younger girl's suitcase.

"We're going to say you're my cousin but because I'm busy with work and my flat is too small Gwen agreed to help out. You were staying with your friend but she had a fight with her boyfriend which meant you got kicked out and needed somewhere to stay." Lucy said picking up the books and DVDs that Emma had bought from the shops earlier that day.

"Ok." Emma nodded, not going to question her way out of the hostel. She took one final glance around the room, held her teddy bear tightly and then shut the suitcase. "I'm ready, what about the food I bought earlier?"

"We've got plenty of food in the house for Christmas." Gwen said with a small shrug. "But you can bring it if you want to, I think the main idea behind it was to give you an idea of how much things cost."  
"I would recommend you definitely take the snacks and chocolate with you." Lucy added, "The rest is up to you."  
"I'll take all of it." Emma said after a small pause while she thought about it. "That way I can cook you a nice meal to say thank you."

"You don't need to." Gwen argued.

"I want to." Emma replied and that was the end of that conversation. It was agreed that Lucy should be the one to go into the kitchen and get Emma's food (which they had labelled as hers earlier in the day) and they quickly put everything in the boot of Gwen's car. Gwen dropped Lucy off at the entrance to her flat before continuing to drive back to hers where Emma would be staying for the next week or so.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Gwen got into work the next morning Lucy looked up from her space on the sofa, she had been about to go down to the range for some practice before getting on with paperwork and things in her office, trying to get ahead for the Christmas break.

"How is she?"

"She's ok, shocked a bit but ok. Met Rhys... met _all_ of Rhys and had to explain that we lived together, we're _together_ together and yet not married. That confused her, and she'll get over seeing Rhys first thing at some point. I forgot to warn him, so I'm not sure who was more surprised. Thanks for saying she should be your cousin."  
"No problem." Lucy said with a shrug. "Like I said, it just makes things easier for everyone, although it does mean that I might actually have to come to yours for a while... which could be... interesting..."

"You don't need to come in, you could just pick Emma up and go again. Although Rhys seemed to think that we should go out together and she'll have to go to yours for Christmas dinner - seeing as you've adopted her into your family." Gwen said quickly. At the best of times the two women were able to tolerate each other and they both had complete respect for their professional work - even though Gwen was still pissed off that Lucy had kept the truth secret so long. But the idea of having Lucy in her house and suddenly part of her life outside of Torchwood was not something she wanted to happen. Her life existed in two separate parts, there was the normal life and Rhys and then Torchwood and all the madness that was involved in that.

"Probably best to just stick to the open doorway or the car downstairs, and I'll let Ianto know to get a bigger turkey." Lucy agreed, she didn't want to get involved in Gwen's personal life anymore than Gwen wanted her involved, even though Gwen insisted on telling them all about it.

The rest of the day passed as normal for the Torchwood team, weevil hunting, shooting in the range, paperwork, keeping up-to-date with their pet projects whilst doing everything Jack added onto their already busy jobs.

Lucy and Gwen told Jack what had happened between John and Emma and that they were struggling with accepting his attitude towards woman and not accepting the new world he found himself in. Jack had been able to understand their problems with the 1950's attitude and beliefs and agreed that they could take a step back with John and he would keep an eye on him. He was surprised when he heard that Gwen had taken Emma back to her flat though.  
"We can't expect Diane and John to take her in, they're complete strangers. Diane didn't even come home last night." Gwen said, defending her decision.

"Uh, I think she was in a B&amp;B." Owen said as he went to sit down at his desk. "I'm going to take her job-hunting later if that's alright." They all looked at Owen, Lucy smirked at him but before she could make any comment, Tosh interrupted them all - something Owen was grateful for.

"Jack... John's son. I think I've found him. If I'm right this could end badly."

"Why?" Jack asked immediately more concerned with this issue than Gwen pushing the line between work and home.

"Because he's in a care home and has dementia."  
"Shit." Jack said looking at the screen, before moving to sit on the sofa and look at the photos. "He's not going to like hearing that. John's witnessing the end of his world, the end of his line. There's not battle to fight, just three lost people who've somehow become our responsibility." He looked at the rest of the team who were all waiting for him to give orders. "Ok; Gwen, Lucy I might not like how you did it but you're right it's not fair on Diane and John or even on Emma to expect them to look out for her. Just be careful - Lucy if it's ok with you, seeing as Rhys thinks she's your cousin we'll put you down as her emergency contact and give her some of your family background. Owen, you take Diane out see what you can find. See if the Cardiff museum has anything on flight or something similar - something that will hold her attention at the same time as letting her catch up on the history she's missed. Tosh, you keep researching as much as possible go as far as cousins but no further. Ianto, if I could have a mug of the liquid gold you call coffee I would be very grateful. I'm going to call John in to discuss this with him and let him know it means."  
They all nodded their understanding and got back to work.

Lucy went round to Gwen's after she finished work - later than Gwen as usual, but then she didn't have anyone at home to get back to - so she could talk to Emma, catch up with her and keep up the facade of being family. She was buzzed up quickly, but was surprised to see Rhys talking to Emma in the front room.

"Hi." Lucy said putting her hand out to shake Rhys' "I'm Lucy, thanks for letting Emma stay on your sofa, we've got no room at ours and Ianto and I tend to work late most nights - it didn't feel like it would be fair to her."  
"I'm Rhys, Gwen's boyfriend." Rhys replied shaking her hand warmly. "It's not a problem, although it was a surprise to see her this morning."  
"Sorry." Emma said quietly.

"It's not a problem." Rhys repeated, "So what do you do at work then Lucy? Gwen hardly talks about her special ops job."

"Oh, um, I'm in charge of weapons training and all things that are designed to cause pain to others." Lucy replied, not wanting to lie to him but still having to think about it. As she had no one outside of Torchwood, the ordinary question came as a shock. "Spend most of my time on the range, if I'm not on the field or filling in paperwork."

"Sounds interesting." Rhys said, although he did look surprised. "How much time do you spend with Gwen then?"  
"We're a small department so quite a while? It depends most days on what's happening and if I'm working in my tiny office or in the main area."  
Gwen walked out into the main room and looked panicked at the sight of her boyfriend talking so casually to Lucy.

"Anyway," Gwen said hastily. "I'm sure Lucy is looking forward to spending some time with Emma, she doesn't want us hanging around."  
"I don't know anything about your work colleagues." Rhys said turning round to look at her. "We're just having a conversation, calm down Gwen. We're going out tonight don't get so stressed."

"Where are you going?" Emma asked, curious about what people in this time did for fun and where they went on night's out.

"Just to one of the nightclubs." Rhys said with a shrug. "Nothing major." He looked at Lucy and Emma, "You two should come."  
"Nooo" Lucy said quickly and Gwen backed her up.

"That's not a good idea Rhys."

"Why not? I'd like to get to know a bit more about the people you work with, and I'm sure Emma wouldn't say no to a night out."

"I don't dance or do nightclubs." Lucy tried.  
"What were you going to do tonight then?"  
"Thinking maybe see what's on at the cinema and go for a nice meal." She shrugged.

"You've got to be, what 21, 22?" He asked

"I'm 23."

"Exactly, which means you are fully capable of going to a nightclub. I'm happy to be designated driver, if needed so you girls can get pissed and we'll have a nice night. Gwen can lend Emma some clothes, they're about the same size."  
"I'll just get in the way. You were planning a nice night out with Gwen, you don't want me being the third wheel."  
"Nah, it'll be fun." Rhys ignored all her reasons why she shouldn't go out with them, as well as the look from his girlfriend that was desperately telling him to stop and to shut up.

Lucy sighed and looked over at Gwen who could see that Rhys was not going to change his mind, she didn't look happy about it but she nodded.

"Ok." Lucy said with a sigh, "I'm hardly dressed for a night out but why not - also I don't drink so don't worry about staying sober Rhys. I'll drive."

"Brilliant." Rhys clapped his hands, glad that it was all sorted, "Now, how about you tell me what Gwen's like at work while they go and get changed."

Lucy was right, it was originally awkward being in the nightclub with, Emma, Gwen and Rhys. Mainly because of the tension between Gwen and herself and Rhys' determination to ignore it and to get to know his wife's colleague better.

"So have you got any family then Lucy?" He asked as he came back from the bar.

"Nah." Lucy said with a shrug and a smile. "It's just me. Well apart from Emma and the extended family, obviously."  
"You're spending Christmas alone?" He asked, and Lucy and Gwen could both see where this line of questioning was going to lead, spending an evening together was hard enough - spending Christmas day together would be hell.

"Ianto and I have a few vague plans." She said quickly, "Small Christmas dinner for the two of us and I think he's going to see some of his family after."  
"Ianto your boyfriend?" Rhys was interested and Emma finished her orange juice and walked on to the dance floor. Gwen smirked at the question and answered before Lucy could.

"Depends who you ask, they'll both say they are just friends but..."  
"But we _are_ just friends/flatmates." Lucy interrupted before Gwen could say anything. "He was kind enough to offer me his spare room when I joined Torchwood and I haven't got round to moving out yet, it's a system that works for us."  
"You joined three months before me." Gwen pointed out with a laugh, "if you wanted to move out you would have done it by now."  
"Like I said." Lucy shrugged, "It works for us, it's nice to have company and not go home to an empty house, plus I don't have to do all the cooking.

"Whose Ianto then? I'm sure I've heard Gwen say his name before."  
"Ianto's the archivist and general worker, he keeps the place tidy, feeds us coffee makes sure we have the right information, stuff like that."

"Useful person to have around then."  
"Yeah." Gwen and Lucy both agreed, "we would struggle without him."

"How many other people in the team?"  
"Owen - the doctor, Tosh - the technician and Jack - our boss." Lucy shrugged, "Like I said, it's a small team so we live in each other's pockets a lot. And talking of work is boring." She quickly changed the subject. "Tell me about you, how did you two meet?"

They kept the topic of conversation casual, both girls changing the subject when the questions got too close to what they did for a living and what was covered by the Official Secrets Act.

Lucy couldn't help but notice that Emma looked uncomfortable surrounded by modern music and teenagers. Gwen evidently noticed the same thing, as she looked up at Emma and then back at Rhys and Lucy.

"Do you think she's alright? I'm not sure she's ever had a proper boyfriend before."  
"If she has I've not been told." Lucy added, keeping up the pretence that Emma was family

"Gwen, stop fussing. She'll me fine, man."

"I'll go get some more drinks." Lucy said seeing the look the couple gave each other. "Same as before?"  
"Yeah, thanks." Rhys said before turning to kiss his girlfriend, Lucy quickly escaped and gave Emma a smile from across the dance hall. Emma smiled back and then started dancing with one of the young men nearby who had caught her eye.

As Lucy put the fresh drinks back on the table, she noticed Emma slipping away with the boy.

"Shit." Gwen looked over and saw the same thing as her.

"Errr... I should." Lucy gestured and Gwen nodded,

"I'll come with you."  
Rhys looked annoyed but followed them as they tried to find where Emma had gone. They found her snogging at one of the booths and Lucy and Gwen both violently pulled him off her.

"Oi hands off." Gwen said

"Get lost." Lucy added and Rhys shoved him further away.

"Get back to your friends, there's a good boy."

"What are you playing at?" Gwen asked Emma, shocked that the teenager had done that.

"Uh, I wasn't going to let him do anything." Lucy looked at Rhys and Gwen.

"I just need a quick word with my cousin. We'll be with you in five minutes."  
"Yeah." Rhys pulled Gwen back, "Come on Gwen, we'll try and find some seats again."  
"Maybe we should just go home in a bit. I've got some paperwork to finish before the holidays and I'm sure Lucy has as well." Rhys looked disappointed but nodded.

"No problem, we'll wait for you two by the car, ok?"  
"Sure, see you there. Thanks." Lucy smiled before sliding into the seat next to Emma as the couple walked away.

"You might not have had a choice Emma, things have changed."  
"I was just having a kiss and a cuddle."  
"Well I hate to tell you this and take away your innocence but I think he was after a lot more than that." Emma looked confused and Lucy felt uncomfortable at the idea of giving someone 'The Talk' and not only that someone who was only 4 years younger than her and yet was born over 50 years ago - Time Travel was complicated. 'The Talk' was always uncomfortable and having to add to it, explaining society's values towards relationships only made it worse.

"You mean?"  
"I mean that people are lot more... sexually aware now days. It's a lot more... acceptable to sleep with others before marriage, having a child out of wedlock isn't frowned on and you might find men could... take advantage of your innocence. Gwen will probably have some magazines and examples if you want me to mention it to her." Emma nodded.

"My mum said that no man wants to married soiled goods."  
"Things change. The swinging 60s happened." Lucy shrugged. "As long as it's safe and between two consenting adults, no one cares."  
"So, how many men have you done it with?" Emma obviously felt uncomfortable asking the question and Lucy felt awkward hearing it.

"Wow, err maybe best not to ask that to people until you become close or you're both drunk." Lucy said, feeling awkward by the fact they were still in a club. "But in answer to your question I've only had one serious boyfriend, but even then with my home life and other factors things got complicated."  
"So you haven't..."

"No, no, I have. But only with that one guy and he turned out to be a tosser who wasn't worth it. Listen let's go join Gwen and Rhys. I'll drive you guys back to their flat and you can talk to Gwen about this, she's probably a lot better at it than me and will have the magazines and examples of what I mean when I said people are more sexually aware nowadays."

Emma nodded and the two pushed their way out of the club and back to the car, Gwen and Rhys.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Even though the responsibilities of Torchwood had increased, it didn't change their day to day lives - besides Emma living with Gwen pretending to be Lucy's cousin and Owen falling in love with Diane. Life moved on, weevils still escaped from the sewers, alien artefacts had to be retrieved, they had phone calls with the government and UNIT and anyone who decided to be nosey and try and find out more about the shadowy streets of Cardiff. Ianto managed to get Emma an interview with a fashion house after she had said that she had always wanted to work in one. Lucy was sitting on Gwen's sofa, waiting for Emma to return.

She walked back in looking nervous.

"Well..." Gwen asked as she walked out from behind the counter with a glass of wine.

"This coat I'm wearing is their latest fashion, '50 inspired. They offered me a job on the spot!" Emma squealed, Lucy jumped up to hug her.

"Oh that's brilliant!"  
"Well done." She agreed, "Not going to be difficult for you to come up with 50's designs either, seeing as for you it was only a week or so ago."

"That'll definitely help." Emma agreed.

"Now we need to find you a flat somewhere near here." Gwen said moving back to the counter to pour another glass for Emma.

"The shops in a new branch in London." Emma said, still excited although the smile on Gwen's face froze and fell. "I've always dreamt about working in a London fashion house. They open the day after boxing day. I'll be a shop girl and a trainee buyer and I can house-share. They've given me contact numbers."  
"London's a big city."  
"That's what my mum used to say." Emma joked

"There's no rush."

"There's nothing to keep me here." She turned to look at Lucy, "What do you think, I'm pretending to be your cousin after all..."  
"I think that London is huge." Lucy said slowly working out the best way to phrase it. "And if you go you'll be thrown in the deep end with all the different cultures and rules from around the world, but it's a job and we can help get you set up there if that's what you really want."  
"I'm sure we can find you something in Cardiff, that's what Ianto originally got your interview for after all. You keep looking."

"Or you could go sod the world, I'm going to try on my own and if it fails you have a place to come back to." Lucy offered seeing Emma sag at the way Gwen reacted.  
"Thanks." Emma smiled at her and Lucy smiled back ignoring the glare from Gwen.

"Anyway, I've got to get back to work, Ianto's found some stuff in the archives that I want to look into. So I will see you soon Emma and see you tomorrow Gwen."  
"Yeah bye." Gwen said half heartedly while Emma gave her a hug.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto knocked on the door of Lucy's office.

"You ready to go?"  
"Nearly." she replied not looking up from the screen as she filled in the rough data from her notebook and saved it. "Yeah ok, that'll do for now. Want to get most of the stuff in in the next couple of days before we're finished for the year."  
"We're on call." He pointed out

"Which is as close as Torchwood gets to the offices being shut and us being on holiday. Allow me to dream." Lucy laughed as he pulled a face at her. "By the way I need you in the range every day. Your practice hours are way behind everyone else's. Not that the average is bad you just need more hours is all." Ianto shrugged

"I'm busy doing other things, I don't have the time you field agents have to play in the shooting range."  
"Well tough, cause I'm not letting you out onto the field at all unless those hours increase, Jack'll back me on that."  
"Back you on what?" Jack asked as they walked through the hub.

"Ianto needs to clock up more hours in the range before he can go on the field." Lucy said, Ianto rolled his eyes behind her and Jack smirked.

"Sorry, Lucy's right. That's her area and I'm duty bound to agree with her."

"Fine." Ianto agreed, "it just means you need to tidy up after yourselves tomorrow and I can't make the coffee as often." Jack turned to Lucy with a pantomime look on his face.

"Surely... surely there are ways around the rules..." Lucy laughed at her boss.

"I'll make sure he goes upstairs on coffee breaks don't worry. Now come on, I'd like to get home today and not tomorrow."  
"I'll see you two tomorrow then." Jack said walking back to his office as they walked towards the lift and the tourist office.

Ianto slipped behind the desk to grab his keys, and was confused where he couldn't immediately find them. Lucy instantly remembered/realised what had happened to them and what John would currently be doing.

"I can't find the keys. You got yours?" Ianto asked as he rummaged through the paperwork on the desk. Lucy pulled hers out of her pocket.

"Yeah, but you'll worry about it all night if we use mine and leave yours lost. Where did you last leave them?"  
"On the side." Ianto replied distractedly "The same place I always leave them."  
"Well you were the only one on duty up here today." Lucy mused, pretending she was thinking aloud but instead trying to make Ianto realise that only one other person could have taken them. It apparently worked because Ianto's eyes grew in understanding and panic.

"John! He was behind here earlier, he's the only other person who could have them. Can you call him while I continue to see if I can find them?"

"No problem." Lucy pulled her phone out and scrolled through her - short - list of contacts to try and call John. After getting no answer for the third time, Ianto agreed that they probably weren't going to get one and that they needed to tell Jack.

"Hello?" Jack said as he answered the phone, Ianto put it on speaker so they could both talk.

"My car keys have gone." Ianto said with no preamble "John was behind the counter earlier on and I can't get hold of him"

"Shit." Jack said, "I'll check the car park CCTV."  
"All I wanted was my book and bed." Lucy moaned "Sometimes I hate this job."  
"No you don't." Jack replied as he looked on the computer, a few seconds of silence later Jack spoke again. "Your car's not in the car park. Hang on just bringing up the tracking software..."  
"You know if I was anyone else I would complain that you have a tracker attached to my car." Ianto pointed out dryly.

"Gwen would pitch a fit if she knew." Lucy agreed before grinning. "Let me be there when she finds out."

"You are unbelievable" Jack groaned "He's gone home..."

"I'm fantastic." Lucy laughed before turning serious, "What do you mean he's gone home."  
"I mean the car is parked right next to his old house." Jack replied, "I'm going to take the SUV and deal with this."  
"Do you want back-up?" Ianto asked.

"No thanks Ianto." Jack said. "Just go home. I'll call you if I need you and you'll have your car back tomorrow morning when you get into work."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning the atmosphere in Torchwood was quiet and unhappy. Lucy, because she knew what had happened to John the night before and what Diane was going to do soon. Ianto, because he didn't know what John had done and he was worried. Gwen, because Emma had decided that she was going to move to London for the job she had been offered and Tosh simply because she was picking up on the mood of her friends and colleagues.

Owen stormed into the hub and they all exchanged looks before looking at Jack. He was the boss, it was up to him to find out what had happened and to face Owen's temper. He escorted Owen up to his office and for half an hour there was lots of shouting heard until Jack walked out again.

"A week and a half ago we all took on an extra responsibility." He started, "Three strangers who had been lost in time, and we promised to help them in any way we could. For now that responsibility has come to an end. Emma has moved to London for a fresh start and although we'll make sure she has sufficient money in her bank account she's asked that we give her a chance to live her life. That's her choice, she's got our mobile numbers so she may call sometimes but she is no longer one of our main concerns." Jack sighed as he had to impart the bad news. "Last night, John took his own life. He couldn't live in a new world without his family, and earlier today Diane took her plane and flew away - I don't know what will happen to her but she is also no longer our responsibility. Unless she lands in the same time, and she apparently did not think that would happen. Your holidays start in a couple of days but in light of the week we've had you can all go home and start them now. Ianto I'll get your car cleaned and sent back to you within the next few days"  
With that he turned and walked back into his office to deal with Owen. The rest of them all looked at each other not sure what to say or do.

"Wow." Tosh said, she was the first to regain her senses as she had spent the least amount of time with the them. Focussing instead on finding out the information and trying to work out how it had happened.

"Yeah." Lucy agreed "that's err... Poor Owen."

"We've got to tell Emma." Gwen said.

"How?" Lucy asked, "'By the way Emma, I know you're having fun in London. But the two stranger that you turned up with. Well they're both dead. John killed himself and Diane is MIA.' yeah that's going to go well."

"She deserves to know."

"Emma did ask to be left alone."Tosh pointed out "Maybe we should at least give her time to get settled into her new life."

Gwen didn't look fully convinced but she nodded.

"How you feeling Ianto?" Lucy asked, "seeing as John used your car..."  
"I was trying not to think about it." Ianto replied glibly. "Thanks for that."  
"No problem." She smiled at him.

"He used your car?" Tosh asked

"John stole Ianto's car keys yesterday." Lucy said, "We only discovered it when we went to go home. Hence why Jack's promised to clean it."

"Damn." The Japanese woman said and they all nodded in agreement.

"Well I'm going home to Rhys. I don't want to hang around Torchwood right now, have a good Christmas."

They all agreed that it was a good idea to leave the hub and go back home, they exchanged Christmas presents (even Gwen and Lucy) before leaving the hub for the early start to their Christmas holidays. Each privately hoping that this was not a prelude of things to come and to set the tone for the holidays themselves.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: I hope you are continuing to enjoy reading Lucy's story cause I'm still having fun writing it. I've got 18 chapters left to write, including 11 episodes. Which means I am more than halfway through. WHOOP**

**Anyway, I hope that you're all happy and having a good day.**

**I shall see you again next week for my Christmas chapter (really I should have planned that better...) before Combat the week after.**

**Rea**


	18. Chapter 18 - Christmas

Lucy was not impressed, it was Christmas Eve so she was wrapping her Christmas presents in her room, listening to carols. The same thing she had done every year for as long as she could remember. What hadn't impressed her was Jack calling her saying she needed to go to work.

"Go away Jack." Lucy said as she answered the phone and put in on speaker so she wouldn't have to stop wrapping Ianto's Christmas presents, the only person she was giving presents too outside of Torchwood was Carys and they were meeting during the week to trade presents. Torchwood was a lonely life sometime and being in a universe that wasn't hers meant she wasn't really looking forward to Christmas this year no matter how much she tried to pretend things were normal. She had still bought and wrapped presents for her sister even though she knew she would never be able to give them to her.

"Lucy have you seen the news?"  
"Nope." She replied with a shrug as she cut the sellotape. "It's Christmas Eve, I make a point to not turn on the TV for anything apart from Doctor Who between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day."

"There's a giant star over London."  
"And we're in Cardiff, so that's fine." She folded the wrapping paper and held in place with her knee as she picked up a piece of pre-cut tape.

"Lucy!" Jack wasn't impressed and Lucy stuck the tape on the present, took the phone off speaker and put it to her ear.

"Jack. Listen this has got nothing to do with us. The day is already saved, providing Donna Noble does not currently work for a Mr Chattergy and she got the job at H.C. Clements, we're fine and don't have to deal with this. Seeing as I checked yesterday that was indeed the case, can you please leave me to enjoy my Christmas Eve?"

"What are you on about?" Jack asked, his annoyance from earlier turning into confusion.

"It's not just Torchwood that I know about." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "I know about the Doctor as well - remember? To me this happened Christmas Day years ago. The Doctor loses Rose at the Battle of Canary Wharf, he burns up a sun to say goodbye cause she ended up in a parallel world and then literally straight after a ginger in a wedding dress appears in the TARDIS - Donna Noble - and an adventure happens. This is that adventure, even though Canary Wharf happened a while ago, for the Doctor it's only been a day or two."

"The Doctor has already saved the day?" Jack asked, wanting to confirm what Lucy had said.

"Well no, not yet but he's going to. It's a longish story that involves the draining of the Thames and Mr Saxon giving permission to the army and presumably UNIT to shoot a Christmas star - which co-incidentally has a Racnoss in it, and the children of the Racnoss also turn out to be the centre of Earth."  
"I'm not sure I want to know" Jack said and Lucy could almost hear his mind working as he tried to make sense of what he had just been told.

"I've got it with me if you want to watch it. We need to keep an eye on Donna anyway, she doesn't travel with the Doctor straight away but she will and she'll need our help when she comes back."

"Ok, well if you are sure..."  
"Jack the Doctor drains the Thames, once that happens you'll know he's saved the day. If it doesn't happen you can shout at me and I'll do everything I can to help solve this incident. But for now can you please piss off so I can get back to Christmas Eve?"

She heard her boss laugh before he hung up, Lucy rolled her eyes, turned the music up and pulled the next present towards her as she got back on with the job in hand.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Although it was Christmas day, they were on call just in case something happened, so Ianto made sure that they still made a full Christmas dinner, he simply made less of it so they could still run if needed at work later. Seeing as the yearly incident happened the day before Lucy was pretty certain that they would be fine and wasn't bothered by the fact that they both had to keep their phones on them at all times. That was simply part of the job anyway.

Ianto passed her a present, it was a large square and she had no idea what it was, before she opened it Ianto spoke.

"I just thought, we've spent so much time that week making sure our new visitors had something to remind them of home and you'd been brilliant, telling them about how you've had to change, that you needed something to remind you of home as well." She nodded and ripped the wrapping paper off to gasp in shock and delight.

"How... I mean just how?"

"When you first arrived, we had to check all your stuff you had with you and that included your camera. You had some shots of different places around Cardiff and a few other things, that Jack wouldn't let us see, but you had photos on there of you and a young girl, that you'd had on their for a couple of years so I realised it had to be important. The photos were still on our system, so I sent this one to those make-your-photo-poster places. And this is what I ended up getting." He was looking straight at her face trying to work out if he had done the right thing, when she jumped up and hugged him so hard he fell over backwards.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou." She babbled happily before realising what she had done and climbed off him. She went back to looking at the picture trying to hide her blush, but it didn't work. The photo was herself and Becky on one of the few days she was allowed to take her sister out, the care worker had to come with them of course and it was her who had taken the photo. They had gone to the beach, it was a summers day but windy and Lucy had decided to teach her sister how to fly a kite. In the photo there was Lucy holding Becky in her arms, even though Becky was really too old to carry at the age of seven holding the string to a kite, while their hair played in the wind.

Lucy's plait was starting to come undone and Becky's wet blonde hair was being dried by the wind, after she had played in the sea earlier that day. As their heads were at the same height the colours merged together and they looked happy, they looked like they had no problem in the world. It didn't look like half an hour later, Lucy had handed her sister back to the care worker and got into a different car to drive in a different direction. Lucy was able to lose herself in the memory of that day, to the point she could almost feel the wind and taste the salt in the sea, she could hear Becky's laughter and smiled at the thought of the young girl. If she ever went back to her universe, although she didn't think it would ever happen, the first thing she was going to do would be to give Becky the biggest hug possible and never let go.

The universe hopper was so busy staring at the picture that Ianto was able to stare at her without her noticing or caring. It was Christmas and he had just handed her a present, therefore he had every right to be looking at her, he reasoned to himself. But he couldn't help but notice the sparkle in her eye as she looked at the scene in front of her. The way her blush made her hair look even darker and how she was playing with the ends of her plait as she always did when she was lost in memories and people that were in a different world to her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy felt awkward getting out of the car and walking towards the tourist office without her usual hoodie, she had tried to sneak one into the car so change into it later but Ianto had noticed and stopped her and put it back on the sofa - folded neatly.

"It looks good on you and your promised Jack that you would stop hiding so much. Getting rid of those baggy hoodies of yours is the first step."

"It's not that baggy." Lucy said crossing her arms, trying not to show how uncomfortable she was in her new leather jacket, in something that actually fit her for once.

"No, it's a medium instead of a large." Ianto replied raising an eyebrow. "You love that leather jacket and have been wearing it every day since Christmas. You said it was one of your best presents."  
"Yeah but that's different and I do love it but..." She said awkwardly trying to explain herself. She did love her leather jacket, but to be outside and around people who knew her without that extra layer of defence and something for her to hide behind was a big deal.

"No one will care." Ianto said as he opened up the tourist office and the entrance to the hub. "The leather jacket suits you and you like it. If it's that much of a problem I can tell the others not to mention it. But you've got to wear it for at least a week, you promised. Besides I even got Tosh to help me pick it out so you've got to let her see you wear it."  
"You've got a good eye for clothes though." Lucy said still feeling self-conscious and now slightly annoyed that Ianto was making her feel guilty. If she didn't wear it Tosh would presume she had chosen wrongly and that she didn't like it, she also knew that Ianto was completely aware of what he was doing and had asked Tosh for help for that specific reason. "Your father was a master tailor wasn't he?"  
"Could tell a man's inside leg measurement from the size of their step. But a bit of extra help is always useful."

They had reached the cog door, Ianto had walked through without a second thought while Lucy had stayed in front of it biting her lip and folding and unfolding her arms. Every part of her was telling her that she should run away and hide, she mentally planned how quickly she could get to the shooting range and out of sight of the others.

"Come inside and don't make a big deal of it. Just pretend that it's all normal and no one else will say anything apart from how good you look." Ianto said, rolling his eyes as he walked over to the kitchen to make the coffees and leaving her alone.

Of course the second Lucy managed to work up the courage to step inside, nearly a full three minutes later, Jack walked out of his office and spotted her. Sod's bloody law.

"Morning guys, nice jacket Lucy. Shows off your body and makes you look sexy. You'll have to fight off the men with a stick when we go out into the field, and when they see you with that gun of yours - well I'm not sure if it's safe to let you out of the hub."  
"What are you rambling on about?" Owen asked as he and Tosh strolled in.

"How good Lucy looks in that leather jacket."

Owen gave her a once over and Lucy felt like a slab of meat, something that had not happened to her before as men's eyes tended to skip over the girl in the hoodie a size or two too big and an old pair of jeans.

"Yeah you look good. It suits you, we can actually see the muscle you've gained since joining instead of you hiding it away. You've put a decent amount of weight on too, you're not too skinny anymore either."

"Thanks, um, I think." Lucy replied. "Thanks by the way Tosh, Ianto said you helped him pick it out."  
"Oh Ianto had already spotted it but just wanted me to confirm it would suit you." Tosh said with a smile. "I think he was worried that you wouldn't like it."  
"Well Ianto's an idiot." Lucy said loudly so he could hear. "I'm just going to go shoot for most of the morning. Um... see ya." She grabbed her mug of coffee from the tray Ianto was holding and quickly disappeared. She knew that they all meant well and were only teasing her but hearing them say how good she looked was not helping her stop feeling comfortable. She knew the leather jacket suited her, but her hoodies were like a security blanket and made it easier to slink into the shadows and out of sight.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: So I admit I could have timed it better and started earlier so this could go up on Christmas day. *shrugs* oh well.**

**Hope you enjoyed this bit of fluff, with a side dish of plot.**

**Reviews make me smile and I reply to every one**

**Rea**


	19. Chapter 19 - Combat, part 1

It was mid-January and after the eventful time they had before Christmas and the 'Christmas Star of death' (Ianto once again showing his skill at naming objects) Torchwood had settled back down into a normal routine. Jack had decided to give the team the night off and following morning off, so Ianto and Lucy were surprised to hear Jack have a go at Gwen for letting her home life slip away from her when they turned up. They were even more surprised that Jack had allowed the pair of them to keep their morning off, he later explained that until they had more information there was nothing the pair of them would be able to do, and as they weren't prone to taking time off anyway he didn't want to pull them in.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked as she threw her jacket onto the sofa.

"Some men last night threw a weevil into the back of their van." Gwen replied.

"One," Jack said "since when did other people know about weevils? Two, have they done this before and if so how come we didn't know about it? Three, what do they want with them anyway?"  
"I dunno." Lucy shrugged, "But I have been in Cardiff long enough to know that the locals don't really bat an eyelid at anything and tend to just ignore things. If they don't talk about it it doesn't happen or matter. I'm sure I've heard some of the elder generation muttering about 'bloody Torchwood' before." Ianto had to agree with Lucy, he was a Cardiff boy born and bred.

"Everyone in Cardiff know there is weird shit going on. It's just easier not to talk about it, it's only people who move to the area care." Even Gwen had some words to add.

"The police are aware, they don't like Torchwood and all our 'spooky-doo's' as Andy calls it. But they know to call us in certain situations."

"Ok fine." Jack raised his hands in surrender. "Citizens of Cardiff are aware of the existence or at least the possibility of the existence of weevils. But that doesn't answer my other two questions. Any ideas on them?"  
They all shook their heads.

"It might not be connected but we've noticed a surge of unusual injuries being reported at the A&amp;E unit." Ianto said, grabbing a file from where he had left it, next to the sofa, the night before. Jack grabbed the file from him and started reading through it.

"Chunks taken out of legs and arms, deep wounds to backs and stomachs."  
"Sounds like weevils to me." Lucy said. "Or if not something damn vicious. That we should probably be worried about."

"So we have a wave of weevil attacks to add to our problems. Oh and by the way, that spray we used on them previously? Looks like they're becoming immune to it."

"They're mutating?" Tosh asked interested

"Or evolving." Ianto added

"Or just developing a better immune system, we use it on them fairly often." Lucy pointed out. "I thought Owen would be on top of something like that, he made the current formula of the spray didn't he?"  
"Well if you can get hold of him, we'll make sure it becomes a priority to update it." Jack said as he started to call their wayward doctor, again. "Any sign of the weevil we lost earlier?"  
"I've run a trace on the van's number plate." Tosh started to explain. "It's fake. 2,500 vans of that type registered in the Cardiff area. Widen that to a 40 mile radius and the number doubles."  
"So run a trace on the vehicle..."  
"Route via traffic cameras?" Tosh finished the sentence for Jack and started back towards her desk looking slightly smug. "Processing that now."

"Owen's still not answering his phone." Gwen said about half an hour later, Lucy was working upstairs for the day instead of in her small office. This was mainly because they were all aware that something was going on and so she had to be part of the group so she could hear all the information first hand but also because Jack had insisted that she didn't cut herself off from the rest of the team. It had worked; as it stopped her from hiding away from the rest of the group, she was becoming a lot more involved with the team and after 6 months she felt like she belonged in Torchwood and this universe. This also meant she felt a lot more at ease with them, everyone apart from Gwen anyway. But that didn't look like it was going to change any time soon.

"Well, he's been even more erratic than usual since that thing with Diane." Tosh said distractedly, trying to work out what had happened with the weevil last night.

"Since the what?" Gwen asked, causing Tosh and Lucy to look up at her, surely Gwen must have known?

"It's none of my business." Tosh replied walking over to another work station to get another search running.

"What thing?" Gwen asked again, this time Lucy answered.

"You must have realised there was something going on Gwen. Look at how he reacted when she left."

"Oh yeah, of course I knew that." Gwen said trying, and failing, at being casual about it. "I just didn't know they had a 'thing' thing."  
"Honestly for someone who claims to be the human heart of Torchwood you're not brilliant at looking at the emotions of your colleagues." Lucy scoffed. "We all knew there was a 'thing' thing happening before she left. He was offering to take complete responsibility for her introduction to the world, and she only spent one night at the hostel. How many more clues did you need?"  
"Yes thank you Lucy." Gwen snapped. "I just hadn't realised how serious it was."

Lucy scoffed again but decided to not say anything else. Now wasn't the time to be getting into an argument.

"Anything you need me to do Tosh?" She asked, "Might not be able to do the technical stuff, but any basic things..."  
"If you could ask Ianto to get me another coffee, that would be brilliant." Tosh replied. "And food if we have any." She looked slightly embarrassed to be asking.

"No problem." Lucy said with a smile as she shut her laptop and put it down on one of the desk. "I offered, and I'm sure we've got some food. Not sure what though, anything you want in particular?" Tosh shook her head.

"Not really, cold pizza will do if that's all we've got. But something a bit more than biscuits."  
"Sure."

Lucy went down to stick her head in the archives, but as she passed the cells noticed the open door and thought she would check in there first. The door was only open if someone was down there for some reason. She found Jack talking to Ianto and decided to stay in the doorway for a while.

"What do you think it's doing?" Ianto asked

"I think it's weeping." Jack replied, after hearing the sound that Janet was making Lucy couldn't help but agree. It sounded like it was in pain, but the sad emotional kind of pain instead of a physical one.

"Why?"

"Owen's been using Janet as his main study." Jack said. "He thinks they have a low level of telepathic ability to share emotion across distance."

"You mean it might be feeling the pain of another weevil?" Ianto asked.

"I hope not." Lucy said walking out of the doorway to join the pair of them standing in front of Janet's cell.

"I agree. Because that would mean that somebody's not only kidnapping weevils, they're causing them pain." Jack's voice stayed quiet but the anger at the idea could clearly be heard. He took a step closer to the cell and Janet continued to wail.

"What can you feel?" Jack whispered, as though Janet would be able to respond and tell him what was going on. She wailed and then turned away from them and sat on the bench at the back. "What do you know?"

They all stared at Janet for a while longer, before Lucy spoke.

"Sorry to break the atmosphere, but I came down on a request from Tosh. I think she's nearly finished tracing the van's route and doesn't want to leave her desk until it's completely done. So could she have another mug of coffee and some form of food that's more substantial than biscuits?"  
Ianto chuckled.

"I think I can just about manage that."

"I'll have one too." Jack said, as they started to walk out of the cells towards the main area. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"I'll make enough for everyone, don't worry."

"I've tracked the van's route." Tosh said as Ianto handed her a mug of steaming hot coffee and a couple of sandwiches. She put them both on the desk, smiled in thanks at the Welshman and then continued explanation. "It went straight from the car park to the docks. This was two hours ago." She brought up some CCTV of the white van and two men carrying something into the warehouse while the other jumped out of the driver's seat and followed them in. Before the cameras turned to static.

"What happened?" Jack asked

"The CCTV cameras stopped working?" Lucy said sarcastically, Jack sent her a 'look' before turning back to the screen.

"Do you think it was deliberate?"

"I think these guys really don't like to be watched." Tosh said leaning back in her chair and grabbing the mug of coffee.

"See, and I know it's a character flaw, but that makes me all the more determined to find out what it is they're hiding."  
"I think we all have the same flaw." Lucy commented wryly, "Most police officers would say the same thing. And I'm not sure how many would actually say curiosity is a character flaw."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning, Tosh and Jack drove down to the docks to see if they could find out what had been dumped there the night before by the men in the white van. Lucy, Gwen and Ianto kept an open line on the comms.

"We've got you're backs covered on the CCTV." Lucy said to Jack "Can't follow you into the warehouse, but we'll know if anyone turns up."  
"Thanks." Jack responded, although he had given the order for them to do so, it was a relief to know that the chances of them being trapped and blind-sided was low. It wasn't himself he was worried for, he would come back to life and his body would repair itself, it was Tosh he wanted to make sure was covered - any injury to her would have a lasting impact.  
"Looks like we've missed them." Tosh commented, they had seen footage of the white van driving around the area earlier that morning as well, this area was obviously important.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, "But if you quit a place in a hurry you tend to be forgetful" The pair of them entered the warehouse, Ianto turned the volume on the headsets up so they could be certain not to miss anything. "Do you know what they used these warehouses for during the war?" Jack asked and Tosh replied in the negative. "Storing the bodies of dead GIs. Sometimes you can know too much history."

The three members of Torchwood still in the hub all look at each other and silently wondered how many times Jack had woken up in a warehouse or how many friends had been taken there.

There was a thudding sound over the speakers, and they all jumped.  
"Jack, Tosh, are you ok?" Gwen asked, there was a tense second or so before Jack responded.

"Yeah, we're fine, the door just slammed behind us due to the wind."  
"Well there was no one outside." Lucy confirmed, "glad you're ok..."

"There's nothing here." Tosh said

"So what were they doing here?" Jack asked. "Why come all this way out?" There was another couple of seconds of radio silence which was broken by a 'psst' from Jack.

"What is it?" Tosh asked, Ianto, Lucy and Gwen all stayed silent not wanting to distract their friends and team mates in case something happened.

"Looks human. Male."

"Is he alive?"  
"Hello?" Jack called, "You ok there? We're looking for the people who were here last night. If you saw anything, now's a good time to speak up."  
"Jack, he's bleeding." There was a tense silence and then Tosh spoke again. "Oh, my God."  
"Weevil marks." Jack explained to both Tosh and the rest of his team listening earnestly at the hub.

"You don't think it's still here, do you?"  
"No. We'd hear it. Help me with the body."

The crazy frog tune started to play, and managed to ruin the atmosphere and give them all a sigh of relief.

"Is that his?" Tosh asked

"You don't think I'd choose _that_ ring tone?" Jack said slightly scathingly but still with a teasing tone to his voice. "Besides, the only people who normally call me are on the headset and I doubt it's Owen, apologising for not turning up this morning, or yesterday."

"Don't answer it." Tosh advised and the hub team all made noises of agreement.

"Hello..." Lucy face palmed and shook her head as they heard Jack answer the phone "... who killed this man?... ... ... I have this selective deafness when I'm talking to cowards or murderers... ... ... Oh I understand this better than you. 'Cause I know how this is going to end. We're going to hunt you down. We're going to ensure that you're punished for what happened here. And we're going to make you surrender that creature that you kidnapped. Is that clear enough?... they hung up on me. Ianto, any idea how they knew to call?"  
"They must have rigged up a camera inside the warehouse." Ianto replied immediately. "You did follow them, maybe they're just covering all bases and trying to scare you off. Plus if that's where I was dumping bodies then I would put up a camera to make sure that no one found them."

"It's worrying how easily you talk about dumping bodies. About how easily any of you talk about dumping bodies really." Jack replied. "I'll call you from the mobile and then I need you to trace all calls to and from it for the last 36 hours, fast as you can."  
"No problem sir."

"Tosh and I will bring the dead body in, someone call Owen again and let him know he has a new patient."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Dan Hodges. Date of birth, 21st January 1979." Gwen said reading from what was presumably his driving licence from the dead man's wallet. "Salesman for a web publishing software, looks like he was married with a kid."

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Owen said picking up Dan's left hand and showing there was a wedding ring on it.

"I can plug his name into our data search." Lucy offered, "see what else we can find, his address for a start..."  
"Good idea." Jack agreed.

"Also, Owen? How does having a wedding ring show that he's got a kid?" Lucy asked sarcastically. Owen ignored her, pressed record on the Dictaphone and started the autopsy and the debrief on it for the rest of the team. This was something that was always useful because it meant the whole team had an idea about what they were dealing with, if they were too busy to watch the autopsy themselves they could simply listen back on the recording while they were getting on with other stuff.

"Right, definitely death by weevil. But he took a right kicking before the throat was punctured. Weevils go for the kill, straight for the jugular. Look at his face. Black eye, bruises to the cheekbones." He pointed at each bit of the body as he talked about it.

"Could he have been tortured?" Tosh asked

"Maybe, but I reckon these wounds were inflicted by humans." Owen replied. "But why smack somebody about and then set a weevil on them? Why not get the weevil to do all the work for you?"  
"Maybe he's a super spy and wouldn't tell them what they wanted to know. So they figured it was better to cut their losses and just kill him, but in a painful way that didn't implicate them." Lucy offered.  
"You watch way too much James Bond." Jack said, staring at Lucy and then looking back at Owen just as Ianto appeared. "Any joy with the phone records?" He asked

"The last incoming number was blocked." Ianto responded, and Lucy could hear how annoyed he was. Ianto didn't like someone beating him and the fact that this was a professional matter and they stopped him being efficient at his job just made it worse. "And the phone's entire call history has been erased."  
"God they move fast." Tosh muttered and Lucy agreed with her.

"If you ask me these guys are using Weevils to carry out the perfect murder." Jack mused. "No fingerprints, no traces of recognisable DNA, a quick guaranteed death. Nothing to connect anyone to the murder."  
"Should be a piece of piss to find the killer then." Owen said, summing up the feelings of the team.

"And how is that any different from what I said?" Lucy asked with mock offence.

"Because _I_ didn't claim he was a super secret spy."

"Well what about this guy?" Gwen asked, "Someone's got to break it to his wife that he's dead."

They all looked at each other and then back at Gwen who was busy looking at the photo of Dan's wife and son in his wallet. Gwen looked up and sighed.

"I'll just go find out where he lives for you." Lucy said quickly, leaving the medbay to go to one of the desks.

When Gwen came back from talking to the family without Owen and looking ready to murder someone, none of them decided to comment about the missing medic. Half an hour later the cog door rolled open and Owen walked in.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jack asked

"Walking." He replied

"In your absence, Toshiko has had a great idea."  
"Well, it had to happen sooner or later." Tosh's face fell slightly, they were all used to Owen's barbs and him being sarcastic but that was downright rude.  
"Ignore him Tosh." Gwen said

"Yeah, just ignore me Tosh, I can be such a wanker sometimes apparently."

"The van went from kidnapping the weevil to the warehouse, they must have known it was empty. I checked the CCTV and they didn't check it out first."  
"So either they own it, or they have someone on the inside as a real estate agent." Lucy continued.

"Owen Harper, you're going into properly. Toshiko's in the middle of fixing you a cover story."  
"And I've called the university, we're using their drama students to help with your advert for the website." Lucy smirked.

"Hang on, why me?"  
"Jack and Gwen were in the carpark, I was in the warehouse. You and Lucy are the only two people they haven't seen."  
"Lucy's in charge of weapons why can't she go?"  
"Because these people are using brute force before they use the weevils. No offence to Lucy but I don't want her out there when I know you can handle that. Like you said she deals in weapons and not hand to hand."  
"No offence caused." Lucy said with a shrug, knowing that Jack was telling the truth. "Taking a gun undercover would make me stand out and ruin the whole 'undercover' thing."  
"We have to get under their guard, find out what's going on." Jack continued.

"Yeah, alright." Owen said tiredly, "I could do with being someone else right now." About half a second later he sat up straight. "Hang on, what do you mean university students?"

"You need workers and people on your advert for the website Tosh has been setting up for you. It was students or AmDram and the students will do it for free and for CV bragging rights. You're sitting in on one of their lectures later to pick a few of them."

Owen looked at Jack slightly desperately.

"Please tell me Lucy is joking?"

"It's too late to cancel on them, I've already spoken to the head of the department." Jack said. "Maybe if you'd turned up earlier you could have said something."  
"Great, just fucking great" Owen cursed. "So who am I supposed to be and what do I do that needs an advert?"

"You can keep your name." Jack said walking over to sit on the end of Owen's workstation. "It's not like he'll actually be able to find the real you if he Googles you - Torchwood security takes care of that. And we ran a scan through the government system to see what business proposition is up and coming and would mean that you need a warehouse and have lots of money."  
"So what is it? Apart from pimp."

"Export and import." Jack said with a grin that meant Owen immediately knew that he wasn't going to like the answer to his next question.

"And what exactly am I exporting and importing?"  
There was a brief silence as the team all looked at each other, hoping someone else would say it and then Owen's temper wouldn't explode at them.

"Eels." Tosh said quietly, staring at the main computer screen still working on the website. "Jellied eels."  
"WHAT!"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hope you enjoy the first part of Combat, I'll see you next week for part 2 but I might be a bit late as I'm working 6 nights next week so it's possible I'll just sleep through Friday.**

**Rea**

**P.S PLEASE REVIEW, I know people are reading but reviews make me happy**


	20. Chapter 20 - Combat, Part 2

After sorting out the advert and confirming that Owen's undercover had been accepted they all got back to working on their own side projects as there was nothing else they could do at that moment. Jack took Ianto with him to talk to one of the patients in hospital, hoping that they would be able to learn more about what was going on. Gwen had been sent home by Jack to try and not lose her life outside of Torchwood - Jack hadn't been very impressed when he discovered how much she was letting her normal life slip away from her.

When Jack walked back in with Ianto he was visibly fuming as he walked through the hub towards the cells, Lucy and Tosh looked at each other and quickly followed.

"What did he say?" Lucy asked, as the two girls and Ianto had to almost run to keep up with their boss.

"He wouldn't tell us." Ianto replied.

"Said 'everyone' would kill him." Jack added as he pulled the cell door open.

"What did he mean, everyone?" Tosh asked

"That's all he'd say. Couldn't get any more out of him" Ianto replied again as Jack opened the window on the door to Janet's cell

"That only leaves us one option. Ok, Janet, time for a trip out." He unlocked the cell door and they stared at him in shock and horror.

"No." Lucy was the first to regain her voice, "Jack that cannot be the only plan!"

"We've got Owen in undercover, I just want back up that he's going to the right place."

They all argued with him as he put a sack over Janet's head and placed her in the boot of the SUV. It got even worse when he drove straight into the middle of town.

"You want to release a Weevil into the middle of Cardiff!" Tosh exploded

"Not exactly in the middle," Jack replied, "a little to the side. We'll place the tracker in its boiler suit so when they capture it, we'll know exactly where they are."  
"It could kill any number of people before then." Tosh still wasn't impressed and Lucy added to her argument.

"Jack, can I remind you that we spend half our working lives in weevil hunts making sure that this doesn't happen. For the exact reasons that Tosh is bringing up. Plus if you manage to lose Janet, Owen really won't be very impressed."  
"Well when Owen remembers he has a full time job then I'll start caring about how impressed he is with me."

"I'm with Tosh and Lucy." Ianto said. "There's no telling what might happen."  
"We set it lose in the same place where they took the other one. It's deserted this time of night. We'll be with it every step of the way." He stopped the car once they had gone up enough floors in the multi-storey and opened the boot with a press of the button. The tracker in Janet's boiler suit bleeped as it jumped out the back of the SUV and started to run away.

"Tracker working?"  
Tosh looked down at her handhold which was continually receiving live information from said tracker.

"Yeah."  
"Go Janet!"  
"For the record Jack, I'm still not happy with this and this could possibly be one of the worst plans you've ever had" Lucy said wryly as she leant back and rested her head. "But for all its madness I'm with you every step of the way."

"Thanks" Jack said sarcastically as he started the SUV again and drove back through the car park in the same direction the at the weevil just took. "Out of interest do you know anything about this?"

Lucy thought and shrugged.

"I know I probably should. I can tell you that it was written by Mickey."  
"Mickey the Idiot?" Jack laughed and Lucy nodded

"Yup, his counterpart writes a lot of stuff, I've not watched most of it though. In this one we've got... weevils disappearing, Owen going mental after Diane disappears, Owen going into the cage..." Lucy was ticking things off on her hands as she tried to remember what happened in this episode. It was only when she said something that hadn't happened yet she remembered what was going to happen and froze. They all looked at her.  
"Owen goes into a cage?" Tosh asked. "Does his undercover fail? Should we get him out?"

"Errrrr..." Lucy tried to figure out how to answer her friend's questions. "All I'm going to say is he does a really fucking stupid thing but he is grieving for Diane and seeing as the only other person he's loved was Katie..."

Jack nodded in understanding.

"So you're saying we should lighten up on Owen then?"  
"God no, he's still a dick." Lucy laughed " I'm just saying that this time he has a reason for being such a dick. And don't be too harsh on him after the whole cage thing..."

"Well when I know what the whole cage thing is and I know what an appropriate response is, I shall try to not be too harsh. Tosh where's Janet gone?"  
"Second right, 200 metres ahead." Tosh instructed Jack and the conversation deftly moved on from what Lucy had inadvertently spilled. "Shit! Stop the car." Jack hit his foot against the brake pedal hard pulling the car to a halt. "She's taken a left, pedestrian access only." Tosh explained not taking her eyes off her PDA which was tracking the weevil.

"Ianto take the wheel." Jack ordered as he, Lucy and Tosh jumped out and ran down the street that Janet had turned down.

The weevil was straight in front of them as they chased after her, they watched in horror as the side street reached a main road where men jumped out of a white van and started kicking Janet until she stopped struggling, they threw her into the back of the van and then drove away. Jack had been forcibly holding Tosh and Lucy back to stop them going to Janet's rescue.

"The weevil has landed." He said as the van drove out of sight and he released his hold on the two women. "Got a signal?"

"Yeah. " Tosh replied, her voice letting Jack know how unhappy she was with this as a plan. "Just so I know where we stand, we would never deliberately put a human being through that. But weevils are fair game, is that right?"  
"We need to follow them." Jack didn't answer her question and Lucy placed a hand on Tosh's arm to calm her down. There were major problems with this plan, things that she wasn't happy with either but they were trying to do everything to stop the weevils being hurt. When this was over they would hopefully all be safe, or at least a hell of a lot safer. Ianto turned the corner in the SUV and Jack ran over.

"I don't like this either." Lucy said before Tosh had made a move to follow Jack. "I've only just remembered what the hell these guys are doing to the weevils and we need to get them out of there as quickly as possible. All we can do is hope that Janet will one day forgive us and maybe ask Owen to inject tracking devices into every one we capture or meet so that something like this doesn't happen again."  
"They were kicking the shit out of her."

"I know, and I didn't say it was good, just that maybe right now it's a mixture of the best and only plan we've got."  
Tosh still didn't look happy but she nodded and the two women walked over to the SUV and climbed in

"What were you two girls gossiping about?" Jack asked, Tosh just stared at him still annoyed and Lucy agreed that it was better not to answer. "Oh come on, let me join in. I can be one of the girls too."

Lucy looked over at Tosh who was obviously trying not to smile at their bosses antics as he jokingly needled at them.

"We could talk about make-up and boys and what's fashionable currently and boys."

"Anyone would think you need an excuse to talk about boys." Tosh murmured and Jack grinned.

"You're talking to me again."

"Shut up and follow that van." She said looking at the PDA again, "it turned right at the bottom of the road."

They followed the tracker until it stopped moving, Tosh constantly giving instructions as Lucy cleaned her gun (her current favourite - a Glock 17) and made sure it was fully stocked, as well as checking that she had enough weevil spray to subdue Janet and take her back home to safety. The team all jumped out of the SUV.  
"So where is it Tosh?" Jack asked, after glancing around and not seeing any sight of the white van, Janet, or the men who had taken her. As Tosh moved the PDA around it started beeping louder and they ran down a side road between some houses, only to find the tracker and a bit of the fabric it was attached to hanging off the wire fence.

"So what have we got now?" Ianto asked

"Nothing." Jack responded annoyed, "We have no clue where they are or what they're doing?" He walked away and the others all looked at each other.  
"Anyone fancy joining me in the shooting range when we get back to the hub? Taking my anger out on paper targets seems like a really good idea."  
"I might join you." Tosh mused, Ianto and Lucy stared at her. "What?"

"Well it's just..." Ianto seemed to be struggling to find the right words so Lucy stepped up fully aware that she was experiencing the same form of confusion.  
"Tosh the only reason you go on the range is to keep your average up and because you know you won't be allowed out with a gun if you don't. The idea of you joining me in an anger management kind of way, quite frankly is a little bit weird."  
"So I'm not allowed to be angry either?"  
"No just I always figured you got rid of your anger by hacking a poor unsuspecting computer."

"Oi!" Tosh jokingly hit Lucy's arm who jumped backwards and grinned.

"Or on your unsuspecting friends and colleagues. Abuse, I tell you, ABUSE."  
"You are so childish." Tosh said with a laugh. Lucy responded to that claim in the most mature way possible, she stuck out her tongue and ran back to the SUV laughing. Even though they had lost Janet (who had become their 'pet' weevil and was slightly tamer than any others) and had no idea what these guys were using weevils for, Tosh couldn't help but laugh as well as she and Ianto followed Lucy at a more sedate pace. For Torchwood this was, unfortunately, just another day and they had got used to living their lives around such situations.

Jack had obviously calmed down a bit while they were talking and rolled his eyes at the sight of Lucy laughing as she jumped into the car It was good to see that she wasn't hiding from the team like she had been a few months ago when he had planned the team building trip into the Beacons. He couldn't help but be glad that the rift had dropped the strange girl onto their doorstep and into their lives, it appeared like it was good for her as well as being good for the team. She had really come out of her shell and although she still never talked about her past beyond the fact that she was a geek, she seemed happier with her life; even if part of her day to day life involved monsters - both human and alien. He noticed she was a lot healthier as well.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Jack," Gwen's voice suddenly appeared over the headset, surprising all of them out of their annoyed silence from having lost Janet. "Can you hear me?"  
"What the hell are you doing there?" Jack asked. "I told you to go home."

"There's a text message that's just come through on Dan Hodges' phone." She replied, dodging the answer to Jack's question and making them all aware that something had happened in her home life that she didn't want them to know. And as Gwen told them pretty much everything about her life outside of Torchwood which was something that annoyed everyone apart from Jack, mostly because it reminded them that they were alone and had no life outside of Torchwood themselves, it must be something bad. "Charlie Foxtrot One Zero, Six Bravo Yankee."  
They looked at Tosh who immediately started typing what they all recognised as a Cardiff postcode into her PDA, trying to find anything of interest that might explain why it was sent to a victim.

"Seems to be a postcode for a building. It's gonna have a Lynch Frost sign outside." Gwen continued.  
"Let's go." Lucy said turning towards Jack.

"Well what is it?"

"I've got the location."  
"Gwen, we'll pick you up on the way." He hung up on the headset and turned to Lucy, "Well?"  
"First rule about fight club..."

"No one talks about fight club" Ianto finished. "So people get an alert by text message and they head to a property."

"A property Mark Lynch knows is empty." Tosh continued

"So the question is what happens at this fight club when they get there?" Jack asked as drove, Tosh directing him to where they needed to go. "And how are the weevils involved?"

Five minutes later they ended up in an old abandoned derelict block of Victorian houses. A sign outside said that Lynch Frost where making them into 'ideal home apartments', but there were no signs of builders or any work being done on it.

They jumped out of the SUV, Jack leading the group as he kicked the door down, guns poised ready to use at any moments but there was no one there. They split into two groups, Lucy, Jack and Gwen stayed on the bottom floor whilst Ianto and Tosh ran up the stairs. Both groups followed the sound of cheering to a large hall, where they found Owen standing inside a cage with a weevil and the sound coming from cheering spectators on the upper floor watching with interest.

Lucy and Jack both fired into the air to get everyone's attention, this muted the spectators but caused the weevil to jump towards Owen.

"STOP!" Jack called as Gwen raced towards the cage desperate to pull her friend and colleague out

"Owen!" She shouted as the weevil threw Owen to the floor. Jack positioned himself to shoot the weevil and Lucy grabbed Lynch's shirt.

"If anything happens to Owen I am holding you personally responsible." She pulled the gun out of his jeans, with a mocking smile. "Awww, how cute. However if you were actually ever going to use that you would have pulled it out the second we ran in. You're not a man, you're just a child playing dress up." He struggled against her but she just held her gun against his shoulder. "See I actually _will_ use this, it won't kill you but it will damn well hurt a lot."

Owen was screaming in the cell and Jack shot the weevil, which caused it to jump off Owen and cower at the side. Gwen ran in and pulled Owen out, trying to be as careful of his wounds as possible. Lucy looked up to see that Tosh and Ianto were shoving the crowd down the corridor as Mark Lynch stared at the destruction of his fight club.

"Who the hell are you people?"  
"We're Torchwood. And you just got one of our best people badly hurt and were using weevils for sport. There's pretty much nothing you can say to make me like you or to make anything better - so I'd suggest you shut the hell up." Lucy snapped at him "Gwen, how's Owen? Do I get to shoot this bastard?"  
"He's going to be ok." Owen pulled away from Gwen as she replied.  
"Damn. Someone get a stretcher," She ordered one of the few men who were near the cage. Lucy guessed that they were in charge of letting people in and out and trying to keep the weevil down. "You've got to have a first aid kit and more nearby, so run and get it." The bald man ran into a side room and came out with a stretcher that Jack and Gwen moved Owen onto. "You did this too him." She said to Lynch.

"He did it to himself." Lynch replied in shock as Lucy let go of him and went over to Owen "He had no fear."

Jack walked into the centre of the room and called up to the spectators, that Tosh and Ianto still hasn't completely pushed away.

"It's over now. These creatures are to be left alone. Go back to your lives."

"Jack." Tosh said as they all heard the sound of the cage opening and turned to see Lynch locking himself inside with a hurt and enraged weevil. A weevil who was smart enough to recognise the person who had caused him so much pain.  
"What are you doing?" Jack asked, raising his gun and keeping it poised but not sure who to point it at - the weevil or Lynch.

"It's over" The estate agent breathed. There was a moment of silence as Jack kept his gun raised before slowly lowering it, the weevil growled and launched itself at the man who had inflicted this on it and Lynch screamed.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all looked up as Jack walked back into the hub, while he had been visiting Owen in hospital the team had pretended to get work done.

"How is he?" Gwen asked, they were all going to ask but she just happened to speak first.

"He's coming back to work tomorrow." Their boss replied sternly, no one dared to ask any more questions. That tone of voice meant that Jack was not going to answer any more questions and that he expected his orders to be listened too. "Lucy, how's Janet and our new guest?"  
"Janet's fine, we're lucky they didn't use her and the new one is stalking his cell." She replied. "Jack, I know that I can't tell you in advance... but..."  
"Forget it."

Lucy paused but felt she had to continue, it was something she had to say and the rest of the team had to hear. She would apologise to Owen personally at a later date as well.

"I just wanted to say I was sorry. I honestly had forgotten this episode... if I'd remembered..."  
"You wouldn't have been able to do anything. _Forget_ it." Jack replied walking over to his office and slammed the door shut.

Lucy looked around at the others hoping one of them would say something to make her feel better even though she knew that there was nothing that they could say that would help. She wouldn't have been able to do anything, but forgetting that Owen would be in so much danger if he went undercover was not acceptable. None of them were able to look her in the eye - Tosh turned towards her computer screen and started typing, Gwen grabbed the closest piece of paper and pulled it towards her and pretended to read it and Ianto just grabbed the empty coffee mugs and walked away. Lucy lowered her head in shame and went down to her office and the shooting range, mumbling apologies at each of them as she passed them.

Today had started out as a good day, with her as part of the team as she joked with them and now she was on the outside looking in again. But she had changed, last time something like this had happened she had made a conscious decision to stay on the outside and try and separate herself even more from the rest of them. This time she was to determined to earn their forgiveness.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews this week, I don't know what happened to make the new readers appear and reviews creep out of the woodwork but it worked. So thank you, if it could continue this week that would be very nice I've had a really busy week at work (6 nights in a row and it's not finished yet) and your reviews made me smile when I was exhausted and ready to give up. **

**Also thanks to my Beta - Jeremy who kept motivating me and pointing out that people were reading even though my chapter:review ratio isn't amazing and that Lucy was good and I shouldn't just give up, even if it was just so he could read the end and find out what happens. I really owe him this week so even though I don't think he's reading this I just thought I'd publicly thank him.**

**Next week is Greeks Baring Gifts where we find out about Lucy's past and my heart broke while writing it. So I would say look forward to it, but... well I'll see you next week.**

**Please review and I love you all**

**Rea**


	21. Chapter 21 - Keep Killing Suzie, part 1

**A/N: Change of plan, 'They Keep Killing Suzie' for dating reasons**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 16th Feb (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

"What do you thinks happened?" Owen asked as they neared the address for a crime scene that they had been called out to.

"I have no idea" Jack replied "She refused to say anything just that it was one of ours."

"Yeah, but what kind of alien attacks happen in suburban Cardiff?" The medic asked. "I mean often they either like the city centre or the middle of fucking nowhere."  
"Well we're here." Jack stopped the SUV and they all jumped out. "You can ask her yourself. Usual formation."

"At last." The detective said as someone lifted the 'crime scene' tape for them. "You must be Torchwood, my team bitch about you all the time."  
"And you are?"

"Detective Swanson"  
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness" Jack said shaking her hand.  
"So I've heard. Tell me something are you always this dressy for a murder investigation?"

"What would you rather me naked?" Lucy pulled a face at Tosh who turned away so as not to start giggling.

"God help me, the stories are true."

"So who's the victim?" Gwen asked before Jack could say something even more inappropriate.

"That's victims, plural." Swanson corrected her. "Yesterday a man was murdered at 96 Oakham Street. Alex Arwyn, 28, single, estate agent. Here we go." She pulled out a photo from the file she was holding and showed it to them. "That's from the scene of the crime." Jack looked at it with Gwen and then passed it down to Tosh, Owen and Lucy. It wasn't a pretty sight but there was nothing that stood out as having alien involvement. "Today, in here, we have two more. Mark and Sara Briscoe, both 33, married. He's a surveyor. She works in education."  
"What about the smears of blood? Is that writing?" Jack asked.

"Work in progress. Come inside and see the finished thing." She nodded at the house and walked into it, the team following her.

"You know I don't think she likes you Captain." Lucy said with a smirk, "It's almost like you've got a bad reputation."  
"Hey I have a great reputation I'll have you know."  
"Oh yeah, because the rumours she heard would suggest differently."

"Just because you people feel the need to tie yourself down..." Jack's laughter faded as they saw what was written on the wall. Written in the blood of the dead victims laying underneath was the word 'Torchwood'.

"Looks like somebody wants your attention." Swanson said angrily and Lucy could understand why she wasn't happy and it wasn't just because of the rumours and Jack's behaviour. What had happened here was because of Torchwood, they had led to the deaths of these people, and the worst thing was she knew what was going to happen - which meant there was nothing she could do about it, this wasn't going to be pretty.

"They've got it." Jack said, being serious for the first time since they had jumped in the SUV and had been discussing each nations hopes for the Six Nations and laughing at Jack for living in Cardiff for so long and still not properly understanding the rules of rugby. Jack had responded by saying he was more interested in the players than the game but he would definitely care more if he got a private show later.

"We found a few of the killer's hairs from the first murder." Swanson said once they had all got over the shock. "Lab results should be in soon."  
"Good we'll need that. Now if you could just clear the room. Some of this equipment is strictly need-to-know."  
"No offence to you and your men detective." Lucy said quickly, seeing Swanson's hackles rise at the idea of being kicked out of her crime scene. "It's simply that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell it to anyone else."

"I can understand that I suppose. But, well... it was only a matter of time."  
"What was?"

"Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it. Now these people are paying the price ordinary people ripped apart with your name written in their own blood. From where I'm standing you did this, Captain Jack Harkness. You and the rest of the Torchwood team."  
"We're only doing everything we can to keep the city safe. Many people would say the same about the police force, locking up innocent people, getting civilians killed, it's all over the internet and the papers..." Lucy replied her voice was quiet, the kind of quiet that warned you to not say anything stupid because it would not be good for your continual health.  
"To the best of my knowledge we've not found a dead body with the word 'police' written above them. And the police are accountable to the law, you just do what the hell you want without fear of consequences, well these people are the consequence." With that the detective left the room and Owen got up to shut the door behind her.

"She's not right Jack. I can't tell you why but I know this and she's not right. There was damn nothing that you could do!" Lucy wanted to kick something but was aware that if she disturbed the crime scene it would cause even more hate from Swanson.

"Ok, I trust you."  
"Well if it's someone we pissed off, that narrows it down to, oh, four or five million?" Owen said  
"And that's just the humans. Tosh how are we doing?" The technician had gone back to the SUV to use their computer system and had been running the names through to see if they had previously encountered them and if there was any link to Torchwood.

"There's no record of Mr and Mrs Briscoe on our database, nor yesterday's victim and no link between him and the Briscoes. No connection between any of them"  
"So these people are completely random?" Gwen asked horrified at the idea that they might be the motive behind three entirely random deaths.

"Well there's nothing that I can see straight away. Lucy?" Lucy sighed and quickly weighed up what she could and couldn't say.

"It's not random and there is a link. Please don't ask me for anything else."  
"That's plenty." Jack said, "Now that Gwen knows and it's all out in the open I'll come up with some new rules about how we deal with your 'situation' in these cases and make sure that everyone knows it. You've helped but not actually told us anything so don't worry. Now let's get all the information we need and then get out of here." They finished the rest of their work in silence only speaking when asking someone to pass them something or to say they were done

"Jack, they've got the results on the killers hair." Tosh told them, breaking the silence as they packed up.  
"We're leaving now anyway." Jack replied. They walked out the front door and back towards the SUV. Detective Swanson was standing next to a police car holding a file; they walked over to her presuming it was the DNA results that Tosh had told them about.

"Initial findings say Caucasian male, early forties, smoker, drinks tequila. Doesn't match any DNA profiles. Only thing of interest is a compound we've never seen before. Recognise it?"  
Owen was reading the file over her shoulder and grabbed it off her to be sure of what he was seeing.

"Uh-oh, we're in trouble."  
"What is it?" Gwen asked

"Compound B67." Owen replied, Lucy and Jack both immediately understood what the medic was telling them.

"You're kidding." Jack said and Gwen looked between them.

"Retcon. He's got Retcon in his blood."

"Ahh shitting hell." Lucy said and they all looked at her, including Swanson. "Oh come on, I'm just saying what we're all thinking, even you detective and you don't even know _why_ we're in trouble"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"B67, a.k.a Retcon," Owen explained back at the hub "a.k.a. the magic ingredient of the amnesia pill"

"And this belongs to us. Whoever this killer is it's somebody we gave the amnesia pill to." Gwen said thinking aloud as Ianto walked in after finishing feeding Myfwany.

"Is he remembering being a serial killer or is he becoming a serial killer because of the Retcon?" Lucy asked. "Are we the cause or the effect?"  
"Wait a minute. I've taken Retcon." Gwen said suddenly worried at the idea of the drug turning people into murderers.

"Then better stay away from sharp objects." Jack replied with a small smile. "Ianto, how many people have we given amnesia pills to?"  
"Two thousand and eight." He said after a small pause while he thought about it.

"Two thousand and seven." Owen corrected. "Lucy didn't actually drug Carys and they are still in contact."  
"What?" Tosh asked as everyone turned to look at Lucy apart from Jack. Lucy just shrugged.  
"Forcing the memories deep into her subconscious wasn't going to help her. I wanted to help Carys and so I did. She's doing a fuck lot better, the nightmares stopped a few months ago and she's decided to use that experience to help others as a councillor - she's applied to uni and everything. Listen this really isn't the issue right now, in fact if anything it's a good thing because it means we've got one less potential bomb out there waiting to explode."

"What if they all become psychotic?" Owen asked, a small amount of excitement mixed in with his sarcasm.

"Do you have to sound so happy?" Tosh asked him

"Yeah, I'm just saying. Mean Streets."

"Cardiff becoming the new setting for 28 days later." Lucy said wryly, "Psychotic zombies roaming the streets the only link between all of them being that they having some missing days in their memories. Could almost make a good film."  
"Tosh narrow the list from Ianto down to fit Swanson's profile, Lucy you can help her, start checking them out as fast as you can. Gwen, Owen there's a link between the victims. Find the link, find the killer."  
"How do we know there's a link?" Ianto asked

"Lucy told us." Tosh said not bothering to glance up from her PDA as she searched for the list of people they had given Retcon to, Ianto nodded in understanding.  
"Right, get to work." Jack ordered and they all got up from their seats to do so apart from Gwen.

"Jack if there is a link why don't we just ask the victims ourselves?" She asked causing them to stop in their tracks and look back at her.

"Not the right time for a séance" Jack replied

"The first time I met Torchwood, you had that glove."  
"No way." Jack laughed.

"Not after what it did to Suzie." Owen agreed.

"It brings people back to life." She continued to argue. "Just for two minutes we could question the murder victims."

"That's exactly what she said." Owen spat. "She was one of us, we trusted her, and now she's dead, 'cause of that thing."

"The glove stays in the safe, where it belongs."

"These murders are happening because of Torchwood." Gwen said standing up and starting to get angry that no one was taking her idea seriously. "So _Torchwood_ has got to do something."  
"And we are." Lucy pointed out. "We're using our data banks to cut down the list of possible suspects, something no one else could possibly do. We'll get there it just won't be as quick"  
"That's not good enough." Gwen snapped. "How many more people have got to die before we use everything at our disposal to catch them?"

"Fine." Jack said, unhappily. "I'll get it out of the safe."

They stood in Jack's office and watched as he typed in the relevant password and pulled out a box with the glove inside.  
"It fell through the rift about 40 years ago." He said. "Lay at the bottom of the bay till we dredged it up." Jack was starting to undo the extra bindings on it. "I always figure this wasn't just lost. Whoever made it, wanted rid of it." He lifted the metal glove out and they all stared at it, remembering what had happened the last they had used it, the friend they had lost because of it.

"You know we never gave it a cool name." Owen's voice was almost mournful, almost.

"I thought we called it the Resurrection Gauntlet." Tosh said

"_Cool_ name"

"What about the Risen Mitten?" Ianto said, the words rolling off his tongue sounding even better with his strong welsh accent.

"The Welsh accent is beautiful you know that?" Lucy said, not really thinking. For the third time that day everyone looked at her in shock and amusement. "Oh come on!" She said defensively. "Risen Mitten, sounds nowhere near as gorgeous and sexy in my Southern accent, not that... I didn't mean." She blushed and started playing with her hair. "I just meant it sounds good in Ianto's accent, that's all, it would sound just as nice if any other Welshmen said it."

"Well you're in the right country to hear the Welsh accent." Jack joked.

"Yeah, watch out Tea-boy, if you actually speak any Welsh she might jump your bones."  
"Oh piss off Owen!"

They all stood in the medbay around the dead body of one of the victims apart from Tosh who stayed at her workstation so she could monitor everything  
"Jack are you ok?" Gwen asked, but the Captain didn't reply he just threw Ianto the stopwatch and picked up the glove.

"Don't forget the maximum resurrection time was two minutes. That's only because Suzie had practice, the most we're likely to get is 30seconds, okay? Lucy you're our resident ghost whisperer still, so I want you ready to calm them down if needed. Tosh are you ready?"

"Ready." She replied "and recording. This man was victim number one, name - Alex Arwyn."

Jack stretched and put his gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the a buzzing sound and Jack shut his eyes, trying to find and pull out the dead consciousness.

"Come on Alex. Come back."  
"How does it work?" Gwen asked

"You just sort of feel like reaching into the dark, finding the dead." He said straining. "I can't... I... I don't... Damn!" He pulled the glove away and his hand out of it as he got an electrical shock. "Nothing. Sorry, never was very good with this thing." He offered it to the medic. "Owen?"  
"No, I tried last time. Everyone apart from Lucy had a go, it only responded to Suzie."  
"I was cleared on medical grounds." Lucy said quickly. "Coming from a different universe and having a different genetic make-up meant Owen didn't want to risk it."  
"I still don't." Owen agreed, "We have no idea what it could do to you making that form of contact or mental link."

"Well, I never had a go." Gwen pointed out, Jack looked around them and gave a small nod as he passed the metal glove over and Gwen pulled it on, moving so she was at the head of the table standing behind the victim, the same position Suzie always took so her victims could never see her face. "It's cold" She hissed

"It warms up" Jack promised. "The glove relies on some sort of empathy, maybe compassion and... just be yourself."  
"The human heart of Torchwood." Lucy muttered

"Not now" Jack said and Lucy was apologetic.

"Sorry." She said looking up at Gwen, "meant to only say that in my head."  
"So it's ok to mock me as long as you don't say it out loud?!" Lucy only shrugged in response and Gwen put her gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the buzz of electricity and Gwen threw her head back in shock. Ianto pressed the button on the clock. Alex was alive and his body jolted forward as he took his first breath.

"Somebody help me!" He said as Jack held him down "Oh god, help me, help me!"  
"Alex I need you to listen to me."  
"Somebody help! Help me!"

"Lucy!"  
"I'm on it, Alex we need you to calm down, we're going to help you but you need to calm down."  
"HELP ME!"  
"We are. You were attacked Alex, do you know who it was? Any idea who attacked you."  
"I need a hospital."  
"We'll get you to safety I promise but we need to know who hurt you so we can get them too, we don't want them to have a head start."

"Who are you?"  
"Lucy."  
"Where am I?"  
"Fifteen seconds." Owen called over.  
"You're safe enough for now." Lucy said quickly, trying to speed this conversation up so she could get an answer. "We just need to know if you knew who they were, yes or no. Quickly!"

"I want my mum." Alex said the seriousness of the situation hitting home.

"Yes or no Alex please." She begged

"Yes. Please let me see my -" He choked on the last word as the glove stopped working, the heart monitor flat-lined and he died again.

"He's gone." Owen said

"Let me keep trying." Gwen said  
"He's dead."  
"But I can bring him back."  
"The glove only works once." Jack told Gwen trying to keep her calm.

"But I can do it. Just let me try!"

"Gwen!" Jack snapped, "look at me. He's gone." She pulled her hand away with a surge of electricity.

"Amazing. She's a natural. Twenty four seconds." Ianto said looking up from the stopwatch  
"Give Ianto a stopwatch and he's happy." Owen muttered

"It's the button on the top." Ianto replied dryly.

"You mean I didn't need to get you that new coffee maker for your birthday along with the expensive coffee, I could have just found a stopwatch?"

"You bought that for yourself just as much as me." Ianto pointed as he returned the watch to his pocket.

"It is not my fault that you have made me addicted to your ambrosia, I hardly ever drank the stuff before I landed here."

"Gwen?" Jack asked stopping the conversation between Lucy, Ianto and Owen, "What do you want to do? Are you ok to continue?"  
"Yeah." Gwen nodded taking a deep breath. "Yeah I think I am."

"Right, Ianto and I will get the next victim, Owen keep her calm and relaxed, Lucy go get her a drink."  
"I don't need..."  
"This thing uses your energy as its focus, you need a drink in fact Lucy get whatever biscuits we've currently got as well and we go again in 5 minutes."

"Recording, victim number two, Mark Briscoe."

"Oh, God, I can feel him. It's like a rope from my heart to the glove." Gwen said as Lucy positioned herself ready to calm the man down straight away. "It's so warm" There was a surge of electricity and Mark Briscoe took a deep breath and stared at them

"Hi," Lucy said keeping her voice quiet and calm with a small smile. "Look at me Mr Briscoe, just at me."

"Where am I?"

"You're were hurt, someone came into your house and attacked you, we don't have long. We just need to know who it was, anything you can remember will help."

"Is my wife alright?"  
"We're looking after her in the next room and will speak to her after we've finished with you, don't worry. But we need to know Mr Briscoe, who was it?"  
"It was that man. He belonged to Pilgrim. He went to Pilgrim."

"Which man? What's Pilgrim?"

"Oh my God. He had a knife."  
"You're safe Mark, stay with me, don't panic. What was his name?"

"Thirty five seconds." Ianto said but Lucy ignored him, keeping herself focussed on Mark and stopping him from panicking at the same time as trying to find out the killers name and get that all important vital link to their former colleague.

"Max"  
"Well done, Mark, that's really good. Now can you tell us anything else about Max, his surname, what he looked like. Anything that's going to help us track him down."  
"I never knew his surname. My wife..."  
"Your wife is fine Mark. She's sleeping in the next room. I need to know about Max so we can find him and make sure he doesn't go after anyone else."  
"Trying Pilgrim and Max." Tosh called over to make sure that they knew and it was picked up in the recording.

"He's going." Owen warned them, and Lucy felt the pressure on her grow she had to get more information from the man, specifically something that would lead them to their old colleague.  
"Anything else you can tell us about him, anyone you know who can help us find him."  
"There was a woman, she knew him better. They were... always talking."  
"Brilliant, we'll find her. What was her name Mark?"

"Where's my wife, why isn't she here?"  
"Her name, Mark and then you can go to your wife I promise. Just tell me her name."

"Suzie."

Everyone apart from Lucy was in shock and the connection between Gwen and Mark Briscoe that was already failing, died.

"One minute, five seconds." Ianto informed them.

"Jack, did I hear that right?" Tosh called over.

"Could be anyone." Owen said shaking his head. "Must be lots of women called Suzie."  
"Not connected to this case." Jack pointed out. "We've been talking to the wrong corpse. Tosh find out everything you can about this Pilgrim group that they all belonged too. Meeting in the board room in an hour. Until then everyone else can... just do your own thing. Gwen you need to eat something." With that Jack left the medbay and walked up to his office.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh was the last to walk into the board room, she had a file under her arm and placed some papers on the table. The meeting was a couple of hours later than planned as Tosh had struggled to find anything on the group originally and had ended up going back to the Briscoe's house to see if there were any clues held there. The police hadn't been happy about it but as they didn't really have a choice they let her in after a lot of complaining about how Torchwood had caused the couple's deaths and how they were always taking over crime scenes.

"Pilgrim. A religious support group, more like a debating society. Meaning of life, does God exist, all that stuff. The point is, it was tiny, more like a hobby, ran by Mark Briscoe's wife, Sara. She had all that stashed in her wardrobe. Handwritten and photocopied. That's why we couldn't find any records. She isn't even online."

"No mention of Suzie or Max?" Jack asked

"Not a word. She didn't even keep a register."

"It wouldn't be our Suzie, though." Owen said. "She wouldn't go to that support-group bollocks."  
"How would you know? I mean were you friends? Any of you?" Gwen asked putting down the piece of paper she was looking at and looking at them instead, silently judging them. "Who was her best friend in this place?"  
"She sort of kept herself to herself." Owen replied.

"She had already started getting obsessed by the glove when I joined." Lucy shrugged. "Besides I'm not sure she approved of Jack letting me stay in Torchwood let alone with all of my memories intact. Suzie was a quiet and brooding type, didn't often come out with us and I gave up asking."

"Well if she needed to talk, maybe that's exactly where she'd go. A group of complete strangers." Gwen offered

"Could be." Jack agreed. "You've got a point Gwen. Time we got to know our deceased colleague a little better. Let's go a on a field trip to find out what we can."

They climbed out of the SUV in the pouring rain.

"Have I got this right?" Gwen asked. "When I die you get to keep all my possessions. My whole life's gonna get stashed in a locker?"  
"Rules and regulations." Jack replied as he punched in the code for the garage door.

"What if I leave my stuff to Rhys?"  
"We'll stash him away too."  
"I'm not happy about it either Gwen." Lucy said. "But now's not the time to complain about it."

The garage door lifted and they stared at the piles of boxes inside, this was one job that Jack refused any help for. He was the boss and it was up to him to deal with it, so although they all had previously known about it in theory; actually seeing Suzie's life in boxes was different.

"Tread carefully people, with respect. This is the life of Suzie Costello." Jack said and walked in, the others following him a second later. They walked into different areas pulling down random boxes to try and find any link between Suzie and Pilgrim.

"That's all we are in the end." Tosh said sadly. "A pile of boxes."  
"Is her father still alive?" Gwen asked as she looked at some photos.  
"Dunno."

"But you must've looked him up to tell him his daughter was dead."

"When Suzie left Torchwood, she was on the run. She wiped all her records. I couldn't retrieve her files. She was good at computers. She was good at everything."

"She was good at murder, too." Owen said. "Laugh a minute that was Suzie."

"What's that?" Gwen asked Jack.  
"A book." Lucy replied glancing over, "what does it look like."  
"It's Emily Dickinson" Jack said "Poet."  
"Jack." Tosh walked over and handed Jack a flyer for Pilgrim. There was no denying it now, Suzie was the link in this case between the small religious group and murders with Torchwood's name painted in blood on the wall. "Pilgrim. She's part of it."

"That proves it then. No choice. It's time Suzie came back."  
They quickly left the garage and locked up in silence, remembering Suzie and the feelings of disbelief and horror when they had found out what she had been doing under their noses.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The all stood in the med bay again, only this time it was more awkward. This time they only Jack and Gwen were actually looking at the body. The others were doing their best to not look at the woman who had once been their friend.

"Do we all get frozen?" Gwen asked, she had been surprised when the only bit of effort needed to get Suzie's body was to go further into the hub and pull it out of storage.

"Rules and regulations." Jack replied

"How long for?"  
"Forever."

"Recording." Tosh said

"Have you got your stopwatch?" Owen asked

"Always." Ianto responded pulling it out of his pocket.

"I'll record from my station." Tosh said uncomfortably. "I'm sorry but I don't want to look her in the eye. Sorry." With that she quickly disappeared from the medbay to the safety of her computers and her desk, away from Suzie.

"Anyone else?" Jack asked, and noticed Lucy looking uncomfortable too. "Lucy?"  
"No, I mean I'll stay but you don't actually need me here do you? Plus it won't take long for Suzie to realise that I knew about her death, I can't imagine she'll be very happy with me. So, um... I'll just stay at the back with Owen and Ianto looking at the medical equipment." She looked over at Owen who shrugged.

"As long as she doesn't break anything I don't care."  
"Ok." Jack agreed.

"Any advice?" Gwen asked as she put the glove on. "Yeah I know. Empathy. Even though she did try to kill me."

"You and me both."

Gwen put her hand to Suzie's forehead, the energy surged and she gasped. Lucy turned away to look at the screen pretending as though she understood what it was telling her.

"Ok we're getting a reading." Owen told the others. "No, it's gone."

Gwen pulled her hand away from Suzie and took some deep breaths.

"Just memories." Gwen said, still out of breath and trying to focus on the real world and not where she had been trying to pull Suzie out of. "Nothing else, she's too far gone."  
"What do we do now?" Tosh asked

"Nothing we can do." Jack replied. "That's it, we're out of options."  
"There's always the knife." Owen offered. "When she killed all those people she always used the knife. It's made out of the same metal as the glove"  
"We've seen it before." Tosh said. "Metallic resonance. Like the glove works better if the knife's part of the process, like closing a circuit."

"Then let's use it." Gwen said stubbornly, determined not to give up on the idea of finding out the information from Suzie herself instead of going the longer way round.

"Minor detail, Suzie's already dead. Does that mean we get to kill her again?" Lucy asked

They all stood in Jack's office in silence a he pulled out the three pronged knife that Suzie had used to kill people with. There was still traces of blood on it.

"Ianto?" Owen asked, looking to see if the archivist could come up with another cool name. There was a short pause while Ianto thought about it before speaking.

"The life knife."

Everyone nodded their approval and then looked at Lucy.  
"What! It's a good name..."  
"Yeah but last time he came up with a good name you said it sounded sexy." Owen joked back, trying to keep the mood light - it wasn't working.

"No I said his _accent_ was sexy. Ah shitting fucking hell. Can we just go and kill Suzie again and get this over with so I can curl up into a ball and hide until you forget that please!"

"Seeing as none of us are never going to forget what you said, hiding's not an option. But yes, let's get this over and done with." Jack said as he walked out from behind his desk and led them back into the med bay.

Lucy stood at the back with Owen and Ianto again, while Jack stood next to Suzie holding the knife and Gwen stood at her head with the glove on and resting on her forehead. Jack sliced Suzie's arm with the knife, although Suzie had been dead for over 6 months Lucy had still expected to see blood for some reason. It was weird seeing the skin pierced and no red liquid pouring out of it.

"Anything?" He asked Gwen

"No, there was just a sort of spark and then it was gone. I'm sorry, Jack. You're gonna have to do it properly."

Jack looked over at the three of them who all nodded their agreement.

"What the hell." Jack said has he positioned the knife over Suzie's stomach and stabbed down. The effect was instantaneous. Both Gwen and Suzie took a deep breath and Ianto pressed the little button on top of the stop watch.

"Suzie, listen it's me." Jack said as he tried to hold Suzie's body down.

"I've gotta go. I've gotta go." Suzie said panicking

"Just look around you. Look at where you are."  
"Can't stay. They know. I've gotta go!"

"Think, try to remember. Suzie! Suzie, look at me!"

"Jack? Oh my god?!" Suzie calmed down enough to realise that she was in the medbay of the hub. "There's a knife in my chest. Did you kill me?"  
"You killed yourself, remember?"

"But... oh my God. I shot myself."

"We gotta ask you about Pilgrim."  
"No, wait a minute didn't I kill you?"  
"Never mind that. We need names and details" Jack replied, he and Gwen were so focuses on Suzie that they didn't notice Ianto, Owen and Lucy all looking up at each other, none of them missing the importance of Suzie remembering that she had shot Jack. Because she hadn't socialised as much with them no one was certain about how much Suzie knew about Jack and his inability to stay dead.

"Whose using the glove?"  
"I'm sorry." Gwen replied

"Wouldn't you know it? Gwen bloody Cooper."

Lucy was desperate to point out that Torchwood wouldn't have had a vacancy for Gwen if Suzie hadn't gone on a murder spree and ended up killing herself, but she didn't want the attention to be turned on her.

"Thirty seconds." Ianto warned them

"When you were in Pilgrim, you gave the amnesia pill to a man - Max. Do you remember?"  
"What? You brought me all the way back just for Max?" Lucy had to admit Suzie was a good actor, less than a minute after she had been brought back from the dead and she was still able to not give anything away that might implicate herself as being the mastermind behind this.

"We need to find him. Who is he? What's his surname?"

"He was just.. some loser..." Suzie was struggling to stay conscious and they could see the effort it was taking from Gwen to keep her in the same plane of existence as them as well.

"We're losing her." Owen called over.  
"Stay here damn you!" Gwen said through gritted teeth.  
"Don't force it Gwen." Jack ordered

"She's not getting away this time. Stay here! No!" There was a surge of energy and Gwen fell backwards, her legs no longer able to properly support her, Jack and Owen ran to her side. Whilst Lucy and Ianto stayed where they were keeping an eye on the equipment.

"I told you to stop."

"It's all right, it's all right. I've got her. I've got her. Right. Here we go. Hold on." Owen said as he gave Gwen a quick once over. "Ok, pulse. Yeah, she's all right, we need to get her out of here. Can you come and give me a hand?"  
"It's the glove. I told you, they get hooked." Jack said holding the glove angrily, it had already taken away one member of his team and he didn't want it to steal another.

"All right, don't make a fuss. It's over now."

"Um Ianto, I'm not an expert." Lucy whispered to the Welshman. "But these readings mean Suzie isn't dead don't they?"

Ianto took a proper look at the display and nodded, confusion showing over his face before it went back to its normal calm and composed look.

"Excuse me." Ianto said loud enough that Owen and Jack could hear him and not just Lucy. "I'm still counting."  
"There's not much point. Suzie's dead." Owen said scathingly only briefly looking up before returning his eyes to Gwen.  
"No, according to your equipment, she's just unconscious"

"What the hell's going on?" Jack asked. Owen jumped up from the floor and over the cables to look at the readings himself before acknowledging that Lucy and Ianto weren't reading it incorrectly

"Oh my God. He's right. She's alive. Suzie's still alive. Look at her. She's bloody breathing."

"She can't be." Jack pulled the knife out but it made no change to the readings from the instruments. Suzie Costello was still alive.

"One minute thirty and counting." Ianto said looking at the stop watch.

"Um, her eyes are fluttering and she looks like she could be waking up." Lucy said having a proper look at Suzie before looking back at Owen. "Is it worth giving her something so we have time to work out what the hell to do next. I mean we've accidentally resurrected our ex-colleague, and she was hardly a bundle of laughs when she was alive the first time."

"Good idea. Owen make sure she stays out cold for a while. We need to talk about what to do next." Jack ordered.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: So we're killing Suzie in two parts and I'll see you for part two next week. Sorry to everyone cause I know I promised you guys that you would find out about Lucy's past this week. I honestly did intend for that to happen then I looked at the dates I had stuck onto each episode and it made more sense for Suzie's ep to happen here cause of the length of time between this part and next weeks one.**

**But to make up for it next week I'll put up part 2 of this as well as Greeks Baring Gifts. Yup next week will be a two parter because I love you and it's my way of celebrating Valentines day with all of my lovely readers/reviewers**

**Please review**

**Rea**


	22. Chapter 22 - Keep Killing Suzie, Part 2

**A/N: Enjoy your first update for this week. Part 2 of Keep Killing Suzie.**

Jack, Lucy and Gwen walked down into one of the rarely used interrogation rooms, where Suzie was sitting in a wheelchair.

"How long has it been?" She asked as they looked at her, Lucy sat on one of the bottom steps, Gwen leant against the wall and Jack moved to sit in the chair opposite as he dropped a file on the table.

"A month"

"When can I die? I just want to go. Can't you leave me alone?" Suzie moaned

"You seem to be stuck." Jack said

"But... am I going to stay like this?" Suzie asked lifting her head and looking at them properly. "For how long?"  
"Don't know."  
"What about you Lucy, do you know? You must know."  
"No idea, sorry Suzie." Lucy replied

"But you knew I was going to die didn't you. You knew!"  
"Yes." There was no point in lying. "I knew and once we'd been to the scene of your third murder victim and met Gwen I even knew it was going to happen in the next 72 hours or so."  
"And you didn't try to stop it. You killed me." Suzie accused  
"You killed yourself and there was nothing I could have done." Lucy said trying to stay calm.

"This isn't Lucy's fault Suzie and you know it." Jack said before Suzie could throw any more accusations.

"Can I see my father?"  
"No."

"You wiped your records, we had no trace of him" Gwen explained

"So he doesn't even know that I'm dead"  
"Well you're not anymore." Gwen's attempt at appeasing Suzie didn't worked as she scoffed at the Welshwomen, Lucy agreed with the sentiment.

"This is sick."

"You started it." Jack opened the file and pulled out the contents so Suzie could see. "Right now we've got an investigation underway. Pilgrim. You visited these Pilgrim meetings, gave an amnesia pill to someone called Max. How do we find him?"  
"What for, what did he do, he was just an ordinary bloke."

"We think the Retcon triggered a psychosis." Jack explained. "He started killing."  
"How many victims?"

"Three, same as you." Gwen replied.

_"We need to know,"_ Owen said over the speakers into the room _"how much Retcon did you give him?"_  
"Owen, hello." Suzie said looking up at where she knew the CCTV camera was. "Scared to face me?"  
_"You frighten the shit out of me, yeah."_

"What about Toshiko? Is she still here?" There was a pause before Owen answered again.

_"Yeah, she's here. All the gang. Happy days. But the amnesia pills, how many did you give him?"_

"One a week. Every week." Suzie said with a sigh, "For two years."  
"Bloody hell" Lucy breathed. "And you didn't that wouldn't damage him in any way"  
"I just... I wanted someone to talk to. About this place. It was driving me mad."

"Except everyone in Torchwood knows exactly what you are going through and would have talked with you if you wanted to - except maybe Owen."  
_"Hey!"_  
"You can't tell me it's not true. Remember Diane?"

_"That is not important"_  
"I just meant you don't tend to talk about things with people - you prefer to throw yourself into everything else, or mope. It's not a bad thing, it's just a thing."  
"Well it's good to see that nothing's changed since I died" Suzie said with a small smile. "Max just listened, that's all he listened. Every week after I finished talking I'd give him the pill."

"You overdosed him" Jack said simply.

"I didn't know that. Keep getting it wrong, don't I? Is that why you brought me back? Did you think I wasn't guilty enough?"

"What was his surname?" Jack had obviously got bored of the conversation and returned to the reason they were there in the first place.

"I don't know. All I ever did was talk about me. It's all my fault, isn't it? Never bloody stops being my fault."  
"It'll stop being your fault when it's not your fault." Lucy said bored of Suzie's pity party. "_You_ murdered those people Suzie, _you_ drugged Max not caring about the outcome from playing with his mind and memories. No one else did that, _you_." She stood up, preparing to leave.

"And you let it all happen." Suzie said loudly before Lucy had the chance to walk out. Instead of turning round and going up the stairs Lucy took a couple of steps forward and leant towards Suzie over the table. Suzie couldn't help but be intimidated by the younger woman who she had never been fond of while she had been part of the team.  
"I didn't have a choice, I still don't. Otherwise this whole thing would have ended a while ago. Max would be put somewhere safe and you would be back in storage where you belong. You're dead Suzie, you might be walking and talking and pulling from life somewhere but you're dead and you're going to stay that way. I'm damn well making sure of it, I promise. Do you want to know the best thing about that promise?" She glared at Suzie, her eyes dark with anger and fury, before giving her a small cold smile. "I don't have to change anything, just need to make sure everything happens the way it should. So enjoy life while you have it, in few days time maybe even as much as a week. You'll be back in cold storage, forever. And we'll all be getting on with our lives and with our job. The one that you did your best to discredit."  
Jack placed his hand on Lucy's back letting her know that she needed to calm down, Lucy shrugged him off and pulled backwards from the table, she stared at them all and then walked out of the interrogation room.

Instead of walking back towards Owen and Tosh in the hub she took the small staircase up to the higher levels where Myfwany stayed, and threw alternating squares of chocolate and handfuls of meat for the dinosaur to catch. Ianto found her there half an hour later, having finished the chocolate and simply throwing the meat in different directions, including down into the hub for Myfwany had to dive for it before it hit the main levels - Owen had shouted up at her for that but she ignored them. He simply sat next to her and waited for her to talk, after another fifteen minutes when it became obvious she wasn'tgoing to, he broke the silence.

"Well you definitely scared her."  
"Hmmm."  
"I think you scared pretty much everyone except Jack, and even he raised an eyebrow in shock."  
"Am I a bad person, Ianto?" Lucy asked suddenly.

"No." Ianto replied straight away.

"Really? I just told an ex-colleague that I would be happy when she was dead and we were getting on with our lives. Doesn't sound like something a good person would do."  
"Suzie's already dead, you just reminded her of that and that it was her fault." Lucy scoffed in disbelief.

"Then why is it all I can think of is how scared Suzie and Gwen looked, even Jack_. I_ did that."

"You lost your temper with an animated dead body who was trying to push the blame onto you because you weren't able to stop her. It doesn't make you a bad person."  
"I suppose." She threw the last piece of meat and then rolled her shoulder back and stood up. "Right, back to work. See if Suzie's told them anything more about Pilgrim. Something useful."

They got back to the central area of the hub as Jack was issuing orders, Suzie was sitting next to Tosh in her wheelchair and Lucy made a point of not standing near her. Suzie was also wearing a head scarf to hide the exit wound from the bullet - being able to see her brain wasn't pretty.

"Suzie says there's a person missing, someone who went to Pilgrim but isn't dead, Lucy McKenzie. She works at the Wolf Bar so we're going to go there and see if we can find Max. Lucy you're coming with us, Ianto can you make sure we've got a cell ready for him, not somewhere next to the weevils although we'll use that as a back-up plan if he doesn't talk to us."  
"No problem, the third floor is pretty empty."

"Tosh you take control of the CCTV, Suzie you're watching it with her to keep an eye out for Max while we look from the floor. Right, let's move out."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The drive to the Wolf Bar was silent, which made the noise from the club even louder as they showed their ID to the bouncer and pushed their way through the crowd.

"Cover the exits." Jack ordered, they nodded and spread out.

"Bloody hell" Gwen moaned. "Like I didn't have a banging headache already."

"That's the glove Gwen." Suzie said, they were using the headsets with added video cameras to keep in contact with each other and send images they were seeing back to the hub so Suzie could help. "Get's inside your mind."  
"Yes thanks Suzie. Stop freak me out. Any sign of Max or this Lucy McKenzie."  
"Nothing yet. Keep moving round."  
"I wish she didn't have my name." Lucy muttered. "You guys talking about how we need to save Lucy's life feels slightly weird."

"Well, it's weird for us too. Keep alert people." Jack said "To repeat, Max is described as 40, 6'3", 6'4", stocky, short dark hair, tattoo down his left arm."  
"Most of the men in here fit that description." Lucy muttered as she scanned the crowd.  
"Agreed." Owen said, "that really narrows it down."

There was a minute or so of silence as they all individually looked at the crowd, scanning different areas and staying near the exits so there was no chance of Max escaping, they couldn't risk losing him.

"Wait I've got a match on that guy." Owen said

"Where is he?"  
"Northwest bar."

Lucy started to walk over from where Owen had mentioned, pushing her way through the dancing crowd.

"Show me." Suzie ordered "Owen, get in closer. Which one do you mean?"

"Wait he's going over to the - hang on wait. I've got a match on our girl, Lucy McKenzie, the student."  
"That's her, that's definitely her." Lucy continued to push through the crowd, keeping her eyes on the barmaid.

"It's too late. He's going over." Owen pushed a man to the ground, and as Lucy spotted him she realised that it wasn't Max. Suzie saw that too and was in a position where she could tell him. Jack had decided that although Lucy had pretty much given the game away to Suzie about what she knew or didn't know it was best to stay quiet and not say anything else. Gwen hadn't been happy about it but Jack had shot down her arguments and the rest of the team agreed, Suzie had lost the right to be told what Lucy knew about the future.

"That isn't him." Suzie said in their ears. "That's not Max."

As Lucy reached the group, Jack and Owen holding a man to the floor she noticed Max holding a knife and was pushed to the ground. Her head started ringing and the world seemed to move in slow motion as well as fast forward as her ears rang and the music became muted.

"Gwen, behind you!" Suzie shouted, giving Gwen enough time to dodge the knife as Max brought it down. Jack jumped from the man and brought Max to the ground.

"That was for Ianto, Risen Mitten, Life Knife, and the old classic, Stun Gun."  
"You saved my life." Gwen breathed.

"Maybe I was brought back for something after all."  
"Is everyone ok?" Jack asked as he looked round at Owen and Gwen who both nodded, it was then he spotted Lucy on the ground as she tried and failed to push herself up. Jack ran to her side

"Owen, over here. Lucy?" Jack gently pulled her up into a sitting position and letting her lean against him. Owen ran over to examine her.

"I'm fine, the world is wrong though. Everything is slow and quiet, except the bells." She said trying to explain, batting the small torch Owen was holding away. "The bells are loud. Why do you have a torch? Do you keep wood in the same pocket too? Then you've got Torchwood" She giggled

"She's got concussion." Owen said looking at Jack."Lucy you need to stay awake, I'll get her into the SUV you deal with Max. Gwen are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, he missed me. Suzie saved my life."

"It sounds like the TARDIS." Lucy said, "all blue and wooysh. And loud and quiet all at the same time." Lucy said as Jack and Jack helped her to her feet.

"You need to focus on the sound of the TARDIS, in fact why don't you tell me everything you can about the Doctor and his TARDIS." Owen said as he half carried Lucy out of the club.

"Well, he ran away from Gallifrey, stole a TARDIS and ran away - woosh. And she's so pretty and she doesn't like Jack, because she's everywhere and he's all fixed and not moving. But shuuuush, that's a secret..."

Owen managed to get Lucy back to the hub safely, Jack stole a police vehicle for their new guest and Gwen drove as he maintained conversation with her poking and prodding her when her eyes began to drift shut.

"What happened?" Ianto asked as he saw Owen walk her into the hub, with an arm around her to keep her steady. He took Lucy's other side which meant she didn't need to concentrate as much on the difficult task of walking in a straight line and up and down some steps. Gwen had come in before them and had obviously been in charge of opening the doors, her face showed that she wasn't best pleased with that idea but also that she was concerned about Lucy. Ianto couldn't help but wish he'd been a fly in the SUV, a journey with the two girls together where Lucy had no conscious filter on what she was saying. The stuff she would have said and Gwen's face as she heard it would have been priceless.

"Concussion." Owen replied, "We'll have to look at the CCTV footage and our recordings gain to see what happened, we missed it as we tackled someone who wasn't Max to the ground. She'll be fine but needs to stay conscious for another hour and then I'll wake her up every half hour after that to check on her. She'll be fine."  
"I'm always fine." Lucy mumbled, "even when I'm at the foot of the stairs I'm fine. And glass too, I am super girl, nothing hurts me."  
Both men looked at each other worried about their friend and colleague as Jack walked up from the cells.

"He's all settled in, Owen once you can leave Lucy I need you to do a full check up on him, find out what makes him tick. That sort of thing."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Lucy woke up the next morning on the sofa in the hub she groaned in pain, her head was pounding, Tosh turned round from her desk.

"How are you feeling?"  
"My head hurts." Lucy replied, "what actually happened? I remember we went to the club, and Owen said he'd spotted Max. But nothing after that. God I sound like I got wasted."

"You were thrown to the floor, landed head first and got concussion. It was quite funny really, once we knew you were fine. Called yourself Super Girl - had to be stopped from trying to fly - insulted Gwen and she wasn't able to respond because you were so out of it as well as trying to mimic the sound of the TARDIS and not very well according to Jack."  
"So I acted drunk without actually being drunk and getting any of the 'good' bit of it then?"  
"Pretty much."  
"Did we get Max or was it a wasted journey."  
"We got him. Owen is telling Jack about what he found out right now, they're in the cells." She grabbed her bag and after ruffling through it for a bit chucked something at Lucy who caught it. "Have some paracetamol, should stop that headache, Owen said I could give it to you if you needed it. I'll let Owen know you're up, he'll want to do a final check before giving you the all clear."

"Thanks." Lucy said as she grabbed a water bottle from the side and swallowed the tablets. "Anything I need to know, where's Gwen?"  
"Talking to Suzie." Tosh said, not looking at Lucy at the mention of their old colleague.  
"Ahh, ok. Um, I might go find Ianto or get on with some work. I've nearly finished rewriting the old files and typing them up. Errr, bye, thanks for the pain killers." Lucy walked away from Tosh who called her back

"Lucy?"

"Yes?" Lucy span round and immediately wished she hadn't and her head pounded.

"It's about what Suzie said. It's not your fault that this happened." Lucy gave her a forced smile.

"Thanks Tosh, but I understand what she means. I might not be her fault but I didn't do anything to try and stop her dying did I?"  
"You couldn't though."  
"Doesn't hold up in a court of law. Knowing but not being able to do anything about it. Anyway, Suzie's back for now - kind of."  
"You knew about this too." Tosh said, it wasn't an accusation, just a simple statement but that seemed to hurt more.

"Yeah, yeah I did."

"You said she was getting her energy and life force from somewhere." Tosh said, and Lucy could see her mind working as she shrugged in response.

"Well she's dead but her body is moving, her brain is working. That means there's some form of energy and it's not coming from her."  
"So where's it coming from?"  
"Dunno, it's not my job to try and find out. I'm weapons, not technology or medical. I'd suggest maybe you or Owen think about it."  
"Thanks." Tosh started doing something on the computer as she had an idea.  
"No problem, all I did was tell you that I can't tell you where she gets her life force from. Do you want some coffee?"  
"Hmmm."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Jack you need to see this." Lucy said as she walked into his office, only to find him talking to Gwen. "Sorry to interrupt, I've been sent from Owen, he's found something."  
"What?" Jack asked as he got up and walked past Gwen who moved to follow as well

"Dunno, he just told me to get you and that it was urgent. Err, you're not actually needed Gwen, sorry. He said to just get Jack."

"Ok fine. I'll just get on with some work then shall I?"  
"Good idea, you can start on the report you owe me." Jack said as he left his office with Lucy, Gwen glared at the back of their heads as they walked away from her.

"I was going over Suzie and Gwen's medical records." Owen explained once Lucy and Jack joined, him, Tosh and Ianto in the conference room. If Jack was surprised that Gwen was the only one not there, he didn't mention it. "I ran them through the Philemon Filter. Watch the footage."  
They watched the recording of Gwen bringing Mark Briscoe, back to life using the glove. Energy was streaming from Gwen into the body.

"This is the moment when Gwen brought back Mark Briscoe, the husband. See? Now look at his death. You see? The energy flow stops just as he's about to die."  
Sure enough, Owen was right, as Briscoe died again the light connecting the two stopped a second or so before.

"But have a look at Gwen with Suzie."

He changed the recording and the stream of energy was definitely stronger and fiercer than before but that wasn't what Owen wanted them to see.

"Whoa." Jack breathed  
"What is that?" Tosh asked

"Energy." Lucy replied before Owen could, "Energy from Gwen giving Suzie life."  
"What Lucy said, but with Suzie it's a permanent connection and she _is_ getting stronger. It's still going right now. She is draining the life out of Gwen."  
"There's always a price." Jack said as he realised what was going on. "The wearer of the glove can bring somebody back but loses their own life in return."  
"A life for a life."

"How do we stop it?" Tosh asked.

"We've got to kill her." Jack replied.

"Except she's draining life from Gwen, won't that just make her drain it faster?" Lucy asked, "If she needs more to stay alive?"  
"Well right now I can't think of any other idea. Suzie's got to die."  
"Again?" Tosh exclaimed.

"Who's gonna do it?" Owen asked.

"Like you said," Jack pulled his service revolver from its holster. "I'm the boss." He walked/ran out of the conference room and the rest of the team looked at each other before all following him out of the conference room and back to their jobs. Lucy to her laptop on the sofa, Owen to the medbay, Ianto to the archives and Tosh to her workstation

"Toshiko." Jack said through the speaker system, causing Lucy to look up from her game of minesweeper, she had got bored with the paperwork a while ago - mainly because it was so repetitive - and started flicking through different games. "Where the hell is Suzie? And where's Gwen?"

"Interrogation room." Tosh replied

"No, they're not. Find them. Fast." Tosh started running scans and Lucy moved to Gwen's workstation where she could bring up the CCTV so she could help and speed up the process.

"I can't see them." Tosh said. "Hold on, scanning." There was a few seconds pause as Jack and Owen joined them and the computer completed the task. "Nope. Nothing on internal scanners."  
"I can't see her on the internal CCTV." Lucy called over

"What's going on?" Where've they gone?" Owen asked.

"We don't know that's why we're looking for them." Lucy pointed out.

"Oh ha ha very funny." Owen smirked.

"Just keep looking." Jack said." Bring up the SUV."  
"Nothing." Lucy said before Tosh could look, "I've already checked that, it's still there and they didn't leave through the tourist office exit, no sign of them on the plass."

"What about Gwen's car?" Tosh said thinking out loud as she brought up the camera, only to see Gwen helping Suzie into her car before going round the other side and getting in.

"What's she doing?" Owen asked as Lucy walked over to join them.

"Getting herself fired." Jack replied.

"Unbelievable." Tosh said, and Lucy could almost imagine Tosh swearing from the way she said it.

"Gwen falls for a sob story every time." Lucy said. "And she thinks all this is her fault."

"But how stupid is that?" Owen muttered. "Thinking she could just drive off."  
"Well I've been saying it for a while..."

"Lucy don't." Jack warned. "Let's go get them."

As they moved away from the workstation the lights and the electrics all shut down and a locking sound was heard.

"What the hell?" Jack said, saying what they were all thinking. "Ianto? Ianto!" He started to run towards the archive, but Ianto came up with a torch at the same time.

"Captain."  
"What happened?"  
"But I thought you must've done it. We've gone into lockdown."

"Then reverse it."  
"I can't. It's 100% The doors are sealed. We're locked in."  
"Shit." Lucy said as she sat back on her sofa. "this is going to make catching Suzie before she kills Gwen more difficult."

"Just a bit." Owen agreed

"Everything's gone."Tosh said as Jack and Ianto came back and joined them. "Everything, computers, mobile coverage, lifts, everything. We're sealed in."

"How long does Gwen have before she dies?" Jack asked Owen

"Two hours, maybe less."  
"Come on, think! If Suzie set up the lockdown how did she do it? She's officially dead the computer wouldn't give her access" Tosh said

"Then how did she do it? What the hell did she do?"

"Suzie couldn't physically start the lockdown." Tosh was thinking aloud as she tried to solve the puzzle in front of her. "Gwen wouldn't let her."  
"But we've got a guest." Lucy pointed out."Suzie's been playing the long game here, she knew we'd have to use the knife to wake her up eventually and she helped us bring Max in."  
"So she set up a program that would respond once Max was here and she had left. That's brilliant." Tosh grinned before realising what she said. "I mean, apart from the fact that Gwen's going to die and we're locked in."

Owen, Jack and Lucy ran down to the cells where Max was sitting cross legged talking.

"...but would not stop for me. The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality. Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me."  
"What is that?" Owen asked. "A poem"

"The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"Emily Dickenson." Jack replied. "A verbal trigger. Say it out loud, maybe repeat it 100 times over and the Hub locks down"

"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me. The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"But if that's part of the system, Suzie must've installed a vocal command program way back."  
"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me."

"Like I said she's been playing the long game. It appears the one thing that Suzie is scared of is death." Lucy said

The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"Max is just a Trojan horse." Jack agreed. "Suzie planned this right from the start."

"You see." Jack explained to the others when they rejoined them upstairs. "Max, the Retcon, everything. It's all been a hoax to get us to resurrect Suzie."

"She gave Max a whole complex of subconscious triggers." Owen said in disbelief.

"Like, she dies, Max becomes a time bomb." Tosh thought.

"Exactly, she hasn't spoken to Max for 6 months and he suddenly started killing people in Pilgrim. Suzie knew that would lead us to her and we'd have to use the knife because there would be no other way of finding a link between them as Mrs Briscoe didn't keep a list of members." Lucy completed the explanation.

"The whole chain of events forces us to bring Suzie back." Jack said

"And then she escapes, using the weak link - Gwen. Someone who doesn't know her so she can play on her emotions."

"You gotta admit, that is not bad." Owen said appreciatively. "I'm picking her for my team."  
"If she could lock down the hub she must've installed a way of reversing it, just in case." Tosh pointed out.

"Yeah." Jack agreed "But what and how do we find it?"

After they had been discussing and arguing about what back door Suzie might have left themselves for about five minutes. Ianto called up to them.

"I've got reception sir."  
"How did you do that?" Jack asked as he ran over. "We're sealed off."  
"Just used the water tower as a relay." Ianto handed his phone over to the Captain, and Tosh looked as though she deserved to be punished for not thinking about that as a way of helping them escape

"Nice work Ianto. But who the hell do we phone?"

"Um, you're going to hate me for suggesting this. But I've got the card for Detective Swanson in my wallet." Lucy said as grabbed her bag which was on the floor next to the sofa. "We're working the same case so I've been calling her regularly to check that they haven't found anything. She's not been happy about it, but I think hearing that we're as stuck as they are helped."  
"But we're not as stuck as they are." Owen said.  
"Yeah, but I was hardly going to say that we know who the killer is because we brought the victims back to life was I?" Lucy said sarcastically as she got the card and passed it over to Jack. "Unless you can think of anyone else."  
"No." Jack took the card off her and started typing in the number on it. "Good thinking Lucy, and calling to check in on them too." She shrugged.

"Just doing my job."

"No it's - Hi this is Torchwood, can I speak to Detective Swanson please."

There was muffled voices as the phone was passed over and Jack placed it on the table on speakerphone.

_"Miss Smith it's late, you'd better not be wasting my time."  
_"Actually it's Captain Harkness and as a matter of fact, I was wondering if you could do us a favour."

_"What the humble police helping the mighty Torchwood? Why don't you just help yourselves like you normally do?"_

"Because we can't?"  
_"Why's that?"_

"We're sorta busy."  
_"Well I'm busy too. Try someone else."_

"No, no, no, it's just because we can't, at the moment, because we're sort of stuck."  
_"In what way?"  
_"We're locked in."

_"You're locked in?"  
_"Just a bit."  
_"Locked in where?"_  
"Um, in our own base"

_"You're locked inside your own base?"  
_"And it's not funny" They could hear her laughing, and Lucy agreed that if the situation wasn't so dire and it wasn't happening to them then she would find it funny too.

_"And how am I supposed to help you, exactly?"_

"We need a book of poetry." She laughed again. "It's not funny."

They let Swanson have her laugh as Jack repeated for everyone else in the office on her end to hear their problem as someone was sent to get the specific book of poetry they needed. Jack was relying on the memory of the book of poems he had seen in Suzie's lock up.

_"All right, Captain Jack, just say that one more time. Nice and clear"_

"We're locked in our own base and we can't get out. Ok, you've had your fun. Now, listen, Detective Swanson, one of our team is in danger."  
"The one who used to be part of your police force." Lucy added

_"All right, you lot, back to work."_Swanson said and they heard her take it off speaker phone._ "Ok I've got it. 'The Complete Poems'. It's gonna cost you 20 quid."_  
"20 quid and a week's worth of the best coffee you've ever had." Lucy agreed quickly.

"Oi, I'm not a coffee machine you can rent out you know." Ianto said, looking slightly disgruntled.

"I might not like Gwen but I don't want her to die." Lucy replied.

"Fine I'll make the coffee."  
"Great, now if you two could stop having a lover's tiff can we get back to the issue at hand."  
"We're not together captain"  
"Not a couple"

"What does the book say?" Jack asked Swanson, ignoring Lucy and Ianto's protest.

_"I don't know. What am I supposed to do?"_

"Find 'I Could Not Stop For Death'. Read out the next verse."  
_"What if that doesn't work?"_  
"Read out the whole book."  
_"It's gonna be a long night."_  
"We've got about 2 hours before our colleague dies, so if you could try and keep to that time frame."

_"Don't worry Miss Smith."_ Swanson said. _"I won't forget, I doubt you'll let me."_

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Part is all we know of heaven And all we need of hell" Jack said, "no try another."  
"_Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed."_ Swanson read _"Christ she was a bundle of laughs."_

" Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed" Jack repeated loud enough that if it was the reverse code the system would have picked it up.

"Wait a minute" Tosh said, "just had a thought. If words cause the lockdown maybe number reverse it. Try the ISBN. Every book's got a different number."

_"Yeah, hang on. I'm looking."_

"Read it out." Tosh ordered, suddenly energised by the hope that they might be able to get out of there in time. Lucy and Owen had fallen back to the sofa and minesweeper and solitaire 20 minutes ago.

"They keyboards aren't working" Jack pointed out.

"But the membrane underneath might just recognise the code."

_"Ok, got it. ISBN 0198600585_" Tosh typed every number as she heard it, she pressed enter and the screen showed the message, 'reversing lockdown.'

"That's it!" Jack said and Lucy and Owen jumped up from the sofa and grabbed their weapons. "Everybody move, move, move! Kathy, thank you. I'll send Lucy or Ianto with that coffee tomorrow lunch time."

"I've got the tracker on Gwen's car." Tosh said in their ear as Jack, Lucy and Owen jumped into the SUV. "It's a hospital. Giving you the coordinates now."  
"On the way." Jack turned to Owen. "How long's she got?"  
"It's only a guess but I'd give Gwen about 40 minutes."  
"Lucy, I want the road ahead clear." Jack said, she had called Swanson again on her mobile as soon as they were out of the hub and she relayed the message.

"Detective we are going to break the speed limit big time, clear the road as much as is humanly possible."

_"No problem. 'All units give Torchwood priority. I repeat give Torchwood priority."_

"Thank you detective I'll call you again once we're in the clear. Jack we need to get a siren or something so others will clear for us."

"Yeah well I'll think about it once all this is sorted."

"They're moving again." Tosh warned them. "Can't predict a specific destination not yet."  
"Keep feeding it through." Jack ordered. "We're catching up." Jack's phone went off and he patched it through to his ear piece. "Hello? ... ... Suzie don't let her die. The glove is killing Gwen and keeping you alive."  
Owen turned round to look at Lucy, surprised that Suzie would be calling them

"What does she want?" He asked

"Psycho bitch wants to show off." Lucy said quietly and he nodded, there was a time when Lucy calling Suzie a psycho bitch would have made him angry, now he agreed.

"Then stop. ... For Gwen's sake. ... Suzie we've got a tracker on that car. We're gonna catch up. I promise... ... If she's dead, then I'm going to kill you Suzie Costello. And I believe Lucy made a promise to the same effect as well. I'm gonna kill you for the last and final time. ... ... Why are you doing this? ... ... Suzie please, just stop. ... ... SUZIE!"

"She's heading for the coastline on the B587. It's a place called Hedley Point. There's some sort of ferry goes out to the islands. Get a move on."  
"So Suzie know we're out then." Owen said.

"Yeah but we know where she's going and we don't have to answer to speed limits." Lucy said. "We've still got a chance."  
"Owen, how long we got?" Jack asked

"Minutes."

They pulled up to see Gwen's car parked near the entrance, Jack drove as far as he could while Owen and Lucy readied their guns, taking the safety off so they could shoot Suzie straight away. At this point ,every second counted. They jumped out of the car, wasting a second to shut the doors and started to run.

Suzie was leaning over Gwen's body which was lying on the floor. She spotted them, kissed Gwen on the forehead and started to run. Owen stopped to check on Gwen but Lucy and Jack continued to follow Suzie.

"Let her go." Jack said bringing his gun up, Suzie was trapped on the end of the pier, there was nowhere else to run.

"I can't."

"Let Gwen go." He repeated harshly.

"I can't!"

"Owen how is she? Owen! Report!"  
"I think we're too late." Owen said.  
"Can't be. Suzie is in a grand total of two episodes out of a possible 31." Lucy said, keeping her gun trained on Suzie much like Jack was. She sneered at the older woman. "You're going back into the dark."  
"If I kill her does she live?" Jack asked Lucy.  
"But you can't, Jack. Cause look at me. I'm the last thing left of Gwen Cooper. Can't you see it. Lucy's fairytale stories are wrong." Suzie said.

"No. There's nothing of Gwen in you." Jack said and shot her in the chest, while Lucy shot her in the leg. Suzie collapsed to the floor. "Owen anything?"  
"Nothing."  
"But I broke the connection."  
"Nothing." Owen repeated, quietly, shock starting to sink in.

"The connection is with the glove and the knife though." Lucy pointed out. "Break the thing that's connecting them..."  
"... And you break the connection. Brilliant." Jack said.

"You came up with it first." Lucy replied shooting Suzie again in the other leg as she tried to get up. Suzie was laughing on the floor.

"I can't die. Never gonna die."

"Tosh, Ianto, destroy the glove and the knife." Jack ordered using the ear piece.

"It's all your fault Jack." Suzie said laughing, "you recruited me." Jack shot her again, in anger, in the hope that she would die, and just because he could. "Captain my captain." She giggled. "Do you want to know a secret? There's something moving in the dark and it's coming, Jack Harkness. It's coming for you."  
"Well it'll have to wait an awfully long time then." Lucy said, shooting Suzie again herself. Suzie's body lurched up before collapsing to the floor again, this time she was finally dead.

"Who, whoa, whoa!" Owen said as Gwen did the same thing only she was alive. "It's ok. It's ok. It's ok! Relax."

"Arrrgghhhh."  
"Welcome back Gwen." Lucy muttered as she stowed her gun and walked towards them. "Jack I'll go deal with the police. Someone probably called them about the gunshots."  
"Yeah." Jack said distracted looking between Gwen and Suzie, obviously thinking about what Suzie had said. "Yeah thanks."  
She ran up to met them, pulling her ID out of her pocket, stopping the protected officers in their tracks.

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: Soooo Lucy lost her temper at Suzie and how she couldn't change anything. That was fun to write**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed part 1 of this episode and I hope part 2 lived up to your expectation**

**Please review**

**Rea**


	23. Chapter 23 - Greeks Bearing Gifts

**A/N: This is NOT a happy chapter. Lucy's life pre-Torchwood was not a nice one and although I may have amplified parts I'm aware that there are people who have had unhappy childhoods. I'm not making light of it or of anyone who had to go through shitty stuff, it is simply there and a part of her life that shaped her into who she is and she would rather forget.**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 3rd April (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

They walked into the excavation tent having received after intercepting some information on CRIMNET saying that not only was a skeleton found on an building site just outside Cardiff but that something wasn't right with the body and there was a 'thing' with it. The police weren't happy when they turned up and took over the scene but as there was nothing they could do they let them in. Gwen and Jack were leading the group whilst Tosh, Owen and Lucy had all the equipment.

"Just once I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party." Jack complained as Owen immediately jumped into the hole and got to work.

"You go to odd parties." Lucy commented

"With food, drink, people dancing, a girl crying in the corner." He continued, "It's not that odd."

"In the middle of an building site in a field, with a dead body?" She shrugged, "sounds like an odd party to me."

"Is it alien?" Gwen asked

"And how. I'm picking up traces of ilmenite, pyroxene and even Dark Matter"  
"Any idea what it is?"  
"Not a clue. Could be a weapon or a really big stapler. How's our friend there?" He asked Owen.

"She's dead." He said sarcastically before returning his attention to what used to be a body.  
"Yeah, thanks, Quincy. 'She'?"

"Judging by the size of her skull."  
"How long have they been here, Tosh?"

"From the depth they found them..." She checked the information against her machine as Lucy passed Owen something from his box of gadgets, she had long given up learning the name of most of Owen's things and Owen had stopped trying to teach her and instead just pointed at what he wanted. "196 years, 11 to 11-and-a-half months."  
"That is almost scary" Lucy said staring at Tosh.

"Well the earth's been disturbed so I'm afraid I can't be more accurate."  
"How is that not accurate, you've got it to within two weeks?"  
"What killed her, the stapler?" Gwen asked before Tosh could reply and go into one of her long-winded talks about what her technology combined with different bits of information could achieve.

"Nah, see those shattered ribs?" Owen pointed at what he was explaining, "I reckon she was shot."

"Well let's get her back to the hub and find out." Jack said standing up and Owen pulled himself out of the hole. Gwen grabbed his hand and helped to pull him up.

"Oh, you're so light. You're like a girl." She teased Owen  
"I'm not light, I'm wiry" He replied. "Fat girls go mad for it. But I guess I don't need to tell you that."  
Lucy looked away from the pair of them and focussed on how they were going to move the skeleton and cause as little damage as possible.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh walked into the hub the next afternoon, after having the morning off work. Lucy was up in the central area getting on with some paperwork in advance of her time off, Owen and Gwen were giggling after kicking a ball about and Ianto was upstairs doing something as he looked at the 'thing' or the 'stapler' they have taken from the building site.

"Um, I'm really sorry." Owen said to Tosh as he and Gwen broke apart and went to their own workstations. "But I think your computer might be dead."

"You're kidding." Tosh said running to the machine. "What happened?"

"Ok, so she said I was no good at sport." Owen started telling the tale, "Hello? So I said 'well, throw something to me and..."

"What happened to the computer?" Tosh interrupted angrily

"Oh, I kicked out the plug." He said awkwardly

"What? I was running a translation program I'd written. I'd collated every scrap of alien language we've got and broken it down into binary threads to see if there was a common derivation."  
"That's a bit of a mouthful." Owen muttered and Gwen giggled.

"Sorry. Private joke... erm stupid joke."

"It sounds impressive." Lucy said timidly, hoping to calm the Japanese woman down before her language changed from English to Japanese when she would immediately withdraw all support for Owen - not that she wanted to support Owen; she just didn't want an angry Tosh on the rampage in the hub.

"It would have been, I've been working on it for months now. We're supposed to be professionals. We've got a job to do."  
"You know what Tosh." Owen said angrily and Gwen skulked off, "Sometimes I think even that stick up your arse has got a stick up its arse."

"Whoa." Lucy said jumping up from her chair, "You just kicked the plug out of her computer while she had important work running. She's allowed to be angry."  
"We were just having some fun, lighten up a bit"

"Oh piss off Owen," She snorted and the doctor walked away, Lucy called after him. "And when you've got the time have another look at the Hub rules, especially number 6." He just stuck two fingers up at her and continued to walk away. Lucy turned round to Tosh instead.

"I know that I can't actually help but is there anything I can do, even if it's just to prompt Ianto into making us some coffee, or hot chocolate?"  
"No." Tosh said as distractedly as she turned the computer back on. "No, it's fine. Thank you though."  
"Well if you're sure." Lucy shrugged, "I do feel slightly bad for leaving you alone with them while I have the next five days off."  
"Don't be, you need time off just as much as the rest of us. Time away from this place will be good for you." She waved off Lucy's worry and tried to reassure her friend while she focused on the screen in front of her.  
"Hmmm..." Lucy didn't say anything and they both returned to their work, five minutes later Tosh spoke again.

"Did you come up with that rule specifically because of this?" She asked, Lucy looked up and smirked.

"Now why would I ever do a thing like that?"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh smiled at Ianto who was giving her a mug of coffee, he returned the smile although it did not match his thoughts that she could hear due to the alien pendant that hung round her neck

'..._pain, this never ending pain, I can't remember a time without it'_ She was worried for the Welshman when his thoughts suddenly lit up, if it was possible she could hear the smile in them although his face looked confused. '_Lucy!'_

She looked up from her desk to find Lucy walking into the hub, "Hey guys" The girl smiled at them, as they all look confused as to why she was there as she had had the past few days off work and wasn't sue to come back until tomorrow. "I know I'm still officially on holiday, don't worry Jack I've not come in to work or train, I'm just here to get a new DVD out of the safe and get my wallet which I left in my locker. Also," The smile grew but Tosh knew it was faked, as did Ianto who was still standing next to her. "I was bored so I randomly made cake... thought you might want some." They all got up and ran over to try and get a slice of the cake she had made. Turning down cake was not something any sane Torchwood agent did on a such a slow day, or on any day really. Besides they were hungry and the last time Lucy had make a cake it was delicious. This one was a marble cake and Lucy had decorated it with lots of brightly different colour flowers.

Tosh was close enough to hear her thoughts now, 'Becky_, god I hope she's ok, need to smile. Can't let them know. I'm fine, I'm Lucy Smith, I'm always fine, oh God Becky... Miss her so much... stay together Lucy, stay with it. Nothing you can do. Smile.' _Pain was dripping off every word and it was all she could do not to cry at the thought of her friend suffering so much.

She had thought Ianto's pain was bad enough but it was nothing in comparison to the waves of emotion coming off Lucy. Ianto had been suffering from mainly a physical pain, whilst Lucy's was pure emotion. It made Tosh just want to curl into a ball and cry and she knew that she was only feeling an echo of what the other girl thought. Tosh couldn't help but be surprised at how Lucy was able to walk around and smile as though nothing was wrong and wondered how often her friend had done it and none of them had noticed how badly she was struggling, it also made her wonder how long Lucy had been keeping a mask in place to hid her true emotions.

"You ok Tosh?" Lucy asked their tech, worried as she hadn't taken a slice of cake yet and looked upset.

"Yeah sorry" She took the slice that was offered to her, "thanks Lucy."

Lucy just smiled back, "Not a problem, what else was I going to do with a big cake? Ianto and I were not going to be able eat it all ourselves at home. Now I'm going to leave this cake here and go get my wallet and the next couple of disks. Honestly, I'd forget my head if it was possible. You sure you're ok?" Tosh nodded as she had cake in her mouth and Lucy walked away and deeper into the hub to retrieve her wallet.

As she walked back up Ianto was waiting for her with coffee in a takeaway cup.

"Thought you might want coffee while you're out shopping."

"Thanks Yan. You spoil me, do you want anything from town or anything in particular for dinner tonight. I was thinking macaroni cheese."

"That sounds brilliant. Can you tidy the lounge?"

"Sure" She took a deep drink of the coffee, before slinging her bag over her shoulder again and walking out of the hub with a quick goodbye thrown over her shoulder.

Owen, Gwen, Tosh and Jack all looked at Ianto with bemusement and laughter in their eyes.

"You sound quite domestic" Gwen commented.

"Well, we live together. It tends to happen, no point us both cooking separate things."

"You almost sound like a couple" Owen taunted.

"Don't be silly Owen" Ianto replied, "just because you struggle with the concept doesn't mean men and women can't be friends without being a couple." And with that, he walked back into the archives leaving them all to their own work.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy spent the rest of the day wondering around town picking up a few bits and pieces, as she tried to distract herself from her own thoughts and convince the world that she was fine. She looked at the clock and realised that Ianto would soon be back home and she still hadn't got what was needed for dinner so she meandered into the supermarket and threw the items needed into her basket. Somehow, she found herself in the alcohol aisle, before she could talk herself out of it she put a bottle of vodka in her basket as well, she paid for it and left the shop.

She didn't drink, but today, today she needed something to stop her thoughts and knew that drink would work. At least for now anyway, she heard her phone ring but ignored it deciding instead to open the bottle. Life could wait, Torchwood could wait and besides she was on holiday.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh spoke to Ianto before he left.

"Ianto, I need to talk to you." He waited patiently for her to say what it was she didn't know how to phrase. "About today, I know I shouldn't know but... it's about Lucy." Whatever Ianto was expecting it wasn't that and he was suddenly worried.

"What did you hear?"

"Something's wrong today Ianto. She didn't take the past few days off for no reason, the cake wasn't for no reason. But I don't know why, she kept thinking about Becky and then kept trying to convince herself she was fine." Ianto was looking at her intently, "I'm worried about her, Ianto, today isn't a good day for her. And Jack said he'd tried to call her in as well but she didn't respond, she could be anywhere doing anything" Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of her friends suffering but she didn't allow them to fall, "I don't know how she was still going Ianto, I could feel a shadow of her pain and I was ready to break, now she's gone AWOL I'm just..."

"Thanks Tosh" Ianto replied he gave her a quick hug, "I'd invite you round tonight but..."

"Don't worry." She said and gave him a slight shove towards the door. "Go. Let me know if you find her, if not I'll start organising a man hunt."

Ianto grabbed his stuff and left the hub as quickly as he could, hoping that Tosh was wrong and that he'd just find Lucy in the kitchen singing to herself as she cooked. But, Toshiko had been hearing their thoughts he couldn't ignore it, plus he had been starting to get worried about his house mate as well. She was jumping from one extreme to another - either doing everything around the house with a lot of nervous energy or sitting on the sofa with the TV on staring into space.

When he opened the door he called out for her as he dropped his keys on the side table, instead of putting them away.

"Lucy? You in?" there was no reply and he found his worry grow. He went to walk into her room but saw the door of his room was open so he looked inside, he found her curled up on his bed, with one of his shirts clutched to her chest and a bottle of vodka in her other hand, about two thirds of the bottle was gone. It took him a few seconds to understand what he was seeing.

"Shit" he whispered, and went to her side, "Lucy? Come on Lu, you need to wake up". Nothing, he slapped her checks "Lucy wake up, come on, just wake up" Lucy rolled over.

"Piss off" She mumbled and Ianto breathed a sigh of relief, he removed the bottle from her hands and drained what was left down the sink. He then tried to take the shirt away but her grip was too tight so he gave up.

"Lucy you need to get up."

"Don't want to"

"But you need to." He pulled the duvet off her and she opened her eyes and glared at him.

"Yan..."

"Up!" He said sternly and she pushed herself up but collapsed back down unable to support herself. Ianto sighed and pulled her up. "What the hell were you doing? You don't drink"

At the sound of the word drink Lucy realised she was no longer holding the bottle.

"Where is it Ianto?"

"Down the sink. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I'm going to be sick" She mumbled before leaning forward and throwing up all over his bedroom floor.  
"Come on, let's get you to the bathroom." Ianto sighed

He supported her weight and pretty much carried her into the bathroom where she threw up again but this time into the loo.

"My head hurts."

"That's what happens when you drink two thirds of a bottle of vodka straight, even Owen would struggle with that. What were you thinking?"

"Becky's birthday today" Lucy replied as though she hadn't hear him, "She's 10."

Ianto wasn't a prying person normally but Lucy was normally so carefully with the information she revealed about her life before Torchwood and something had upset her and he wanted to know what it was. Plus it kept her talking and awake so he asked.

"Will you tell me more about Becky?"

"My sister" Lucy replied and Ianto could see she was trying not to slur her words, "Social took her, when she was eight... Haven't let me take her back... Say I need to grow up without her... I brought her up and now I'm not good enough... I protected her and took all the blame... Every punch... Nearly every punch."

"What happened?" He was finally learning why she was comfortable in the shadows and not sure if he really wanted to know, but he had to keep Lucy awake and she obviously needed to talk about it.

"Mum's mind is fucked up, Dad turned to the bottle and started hitting me, Becky was a brand new baby, I looked after her and mum. 'Til Mum killed herself. But we were fine after that too. I kept her safe." She threw up again and once she had rinsed her mouth with the glass of water Ianto had got for her she continued, speaking in short sentences and trying her best not to slur the words. "Were fine for 8 years until some bastard hit her with their car. She was in a coma... 5 weeks and 4 days, I was with her all time. Social found out, they went to tell Dad and he'd already started - he'd been fired. Glad I wasn't home. And Becky woke up and they took her away. They said, said maybe, and then I argued and they said no."

Ianto suddenly understood, why she had decided to drink that night even though she never drank normally but Lucy continued.

"Said I wasn't good enough for her" she looked up at Ianto and he could see the tears down her face "It's her birthday and I'm not there, Yan. Maybe I'm really not good enough for her."

He didn't hesitate in pulling her close for a hug.

"Don't you dare say that Lu. You're amazing, and you didn't miss her birthday, you made her cake. Then you remembered she couldn't have it and gave it to us. You're an amazing sister and person and were thrown into a horrible situation but you coped. You looked after your mother and you were a mother to Becky and you were still at school. I'm not stupid, you could only have been 14 when Becky was born and you did it, I have no idea how young you were when you started looking after your mother but you still did it. You did what no one else could have done and that's on top of everything else in your life."

"I really miss her Ianto."

"I know you do. Now we need to sober you up and you are going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow."

"nrrgh" She replied, "tired." Now she had told him everything Lucy sagged against him again, and he could see she was about to fall asleep again.

"You need to eat first Lu" Ianto pointed out, as he gently pushed her off him so she was leaning against the toilet instead. "And I need to clean my room, there's sick all over the floor. I'll order Chinese, you clean yourself up. Are you going to be ok?" She nodded and he started to walk away.

"Love you Ianto." he froze for a few seconds before continuing to walk away again, able to persuade himself that she was drunk and didn't know what she was saying. He ignored the fact she was obviously the kind of drunk that only spoke the truth, he didn't want to have to think about it. Besides she could have simply meant it in a friendship way, it didn't have to mean anything.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy woke up, as Ianto turned the light on, with a groan.

"Off" She mumbled as she tried to pull her duvet over her face to block out as much of the hated light as possible. She tried not to think about how odd it was that Ianto was in her room as they both had agreed to the other's privacy and only went in when invited. It was at that point that she remembered that she had been drinking in Ianto's room the night before. She sat up suddenly and then her body complained and she collapsed back down onto the bed, Ianto laughed.

"Not so loud" She whispered.

"I've got paracetamol and I'm frying bacon for breakfast. Best cure in the world for a hangover, especially the first one." He said and Lucy was grateful that he was being quiet, "I've also sent a text to Jack saying you were ill in the night so you won't be in today."

As much as Lucy hated the idea of being weak she was grateful that she didn't have to face the team, Owen would never let her forget it and would do his best to be as loud as possible all day.

"Thanks." She replied

"No problem, but you do actually have to get out of bed, and I've removed all of my alcohol from the flat, just in case." She groaned again.

"The thought is making me sick. I don't drink Ianto, it was just a bad day."  
"I know." He sat down on the side of her bed and put a glass of water and some tablets on the side.

"What do you know?" Lucy asked immediately ignoring the hangover in her fear of what she had said while her inhibitions were lowered. "Ianto," She said seriously, "what did I say last night?"

"You spoke about Becky." Ianto had thought about not letting her know what she had said, but after seeing the panic on his face he knew that it wouldn't be fair to lie. Plus he was hoping that now he had a bit more of an idea of her life before Torchwood she might talk to him about it. Sober.

"What did I say?" Lucy repeated going pale

"You said that it was the first birthday of hers you've ever missed and..."

"I said a bit about Dad didn't I?" Lucy sagged.

"You mentioned the car hitting her as well." Ianto nodded

"God I was drunk."

"You were using one of my shirts as a teddy bear." Ianto laughed trying to lighten the mode

"Really?" She was glad to accept the change of conversation "Oh god."

"It was quite funny, you really didn't want to let go of it." He smirked, "my shirt clutched in one hand and a bottle of vodka in another, you looked like any other 24 year old."

"What like a drunk student?"

"Yup, like any other drunk student after a good night out."

"I think I prefer being a Torchwood agent most of the time, although I had started working on a degree with the open uni." She was glad to be on safer ground and away from the topic of her family.

"What on?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Lucy quipped, Ianto raised an eyebrow and pulled the curtain open, "Noooo" Lucy flinched and dropped back into the bed and pulled the duvet over her.

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: Like I warned you it wasn't happy and I feel slightly bad that I'm leaving you with that for the next week, but you got a double update so it's a case of swings and roundabouts. Plus Lucy told Ianto she loved him, I mean she was drunk but she did tell him!**

**I'll see you again next week as we start the finale for series 1 with Part 1 of Captain Jack Harkness.**

**Please review (both chapters cause I'm review greedy and you love me :P)**

**Rea**

**P.S I've nearly finished writing Series 2, only 2 more episodes left to go!**


	24. Chapter 24 - Cpt Jack Harkness, Part 1

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 27th April (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Remind me again why you're coming with us." Jack said as Lucy climbed into the back of the SUV with Tosh and Jack in the front, after Ianto had informed them of the odd complaints to the police about a sound disturbance.  
"Because it makes my life a lot easier." Lucy replied blithely "Besides, why shouldn't I come?"  
"You know when you say things like that it worries me?" Tosh asked glancing at Jack who gave a small nod in agreement.

"Why?" Lucy asked although she was aware of the answer, her eyes shone with laughter at the looks that Tosh and Jack gave each other as they tried to work out the best way of phrasing their reply  
"Because it means you almost certainly know something and that normally means long nights and days. I mean the last time you knew something it was about Suzie, and that was hardly a bundle of laughs." Tosh said after a few seconds of silence.

"Doesn't always mean that, 'Random Shoes' hardly meant anything. You didn't even notice it happening until after it did. Not every episode was good."  
"So this is probably an episode just not a very good one." Jack said slightly mockingly.

"No I like this one" Lucy disagreed with Jack's guess but confirmed that it was an episode "it's mainly a character episode instead of action. Although Ianto and Owen are going to be busy."

"So why didn't you stay with them?"  
"Because this makes my life easier" She repeated with a roll of her eyes, Jack glanced at her through the rear view mirror and she sighed and continued, "If I stay I could very easily do something that would make a big impact on the next episode, maybe cause it to not happen, maybe cause it to get worse I don't know. And I also don't know how that change will ripple out onto others. Better for me to not be there."

"Seems fair enough to me. By coming with us you don't have to make the choice." Tosh shrugged once she understood what Lucy was saying.  
"Yup. You look lovely by the way."  
"Thanks," Tosh blushed, "It's my grandfather's 88th birthday, 88 is a joyous year for the Japanese. After this I'm off to London to watch grown men throw rice."

"I thought you'd dressed up just for me." Jack laughed as he parked the SUV outside the old hall, Lucy noticed the Vote Saxon poster and grimaced, the election was in 2 weeks, and everyone already knew that Harold Saxon was going to be walking into Number 10 Downing street on the morning after election day. And then only hours later the cabinet would all be killed and the beginning of the-year-that-never-was was the next day, although she was the only person apart from the Master and his wife to know the second part and they didn't know what was going to happen after a year, simply that they were going to start their plan of literally taking over the universe having conquered the Earth.

"You coming Lucy?" Jack said, he and Tosh had got out of the car while she had been day dreaming about the future.

"Yeah" She replied, forcing herself to focus on what was going to happen now instead of the future. Right now she had to think about WWII and not the Master almost starting a war with the rest of the universe.

"Down to business" Jack said as he pushed the doors open "What have we got here?"  
"The Ritz Dance Hall" Tosh said, remembering what Ianto had told them before they left, "It's been derelict since 1989, but someone's complained about hearing music drifting out, music from the 1940s"

Jack shushed Tosh, who raised an eyebrow at Lucy. Lucy just shrugged as she heard why Jack had shut them up; there was music playing upstairs.

"You two coming up?" Jack asked, he didn't give them any time to respond as he ascended the stairs. Tosh checked her watch to make sure she had time and the two girls quickly followed him.

The room was vast with a beautiful chandelier and painted red walls, with some old posters advertising concerts that occurred decades ago; you could almost see the history and the dancers in the room even though the balcony walls were covered in plastic and tape.

"Look at the chandelier." Jack whistled in appreciation, "No neon lights back then."

"Always wished I could dance" Lucy mused, "like properly dance." Jack turned round and grabbed her hand.

"There was just dashing young soldiers and pretty young ladies." He pulled her into a dance hold and Lucy followed his lead, trying to make sure she didn't step on his feet. "And as they danced, the girls would look into their partners eyes, smile softly and say..." He spun her out and Lucy stumbled backwards.

"Fuck!" She cursed as she tried not to fall over, Jack and Tosh laughed.

"It was more along the lines of, 'and how long before you head off to war?' Ladies would never swear."  
"Well it's a good thing I'm not a lady." Lucy joked, "_And_ that I didn't crash into Tosh and her laptop."  
"A very good thing." Tosh agreed before realising how that could be interpreted. "I mean about not hitting my laptop. Not that you're not a lady..." She tried to cover her tracks but got flustered and Lucy just smiled at her.

"It's ok, I knew what you meant. And I say it's a good thing I'm not a lady as well, can you imagine how dull that would be? Although you pull it off well."

They started walking down the stairs and Lucy's eyes were drawn to the words Bad Wolf in the graffiti, Tosh pulled out one of her many devices and started checking to see if there was any sign of a rift disturbance.

"There's nothing here but memories and dust." Jack summed it up, "Let's get going, we'll go back via the station for you Tosh."  
"Thanks." Tosh replied still not looking up from the device, just wanting to be sure before they left. Lucy and Jack continued to walk down the steps but stopped when the music started up again.

Only this time the music was different, it was louder and there was also the sound of people talking and enjoying themselves. Lucy knew that they had slipped through the gap between the two years and were now in the past but Tosh and Jack had no idea. It was odd how there was no discernible difference, there was no sign at all that they had fallen back in time almost 50years. Nothing like what it felt like to fall through universes via the rift.

The three members of Torchwood turned round and walked back up the stairs, the sight they saw was completely different to what the room had looked like earlier; the chandelier was working, there were no posters on the wall talking about the new band to happen in the 80s, instead they were reminding people how to act in a blackout, and a live jazz band that would be performing later in the week. People were dancing, soldiers in uniform and women in dresses, they were all laughing and enjoying being alive in WWII London. Lucy and Jack smiled at the sight while Tosh looked around amazed.

"They look so real." Tosh said as she tried to make sense of what had happened, understandably she was confused - even for Torchwood this was odd.

Jack used his vortex manipulator to scan them.

"They're not ghosts." He said, slightly confused by what had happened before working it out. "It's a simple temporal shift."

"Two times in the same place merged together briefly." Lucy added, "it's beautiful"

"Took the words out of my mouth." He said before looking at Lucy, "Hang on did you take the words out of my mouth?"  
"If I did it wasn't on purpose. I appreciate it almost as much as you. I hate to tell you this Captain but I'm not so enamoured with you that I know every single line of all 31 shows." She replied with a shrug, "I stand out a bit though..." She was in her normal wear of jeans, a dark t-shirt and her leather jacket, she had a stun gun in a holster on her hip and a real one tucked into the back of her jeans. Jack looked her up and down, before nodding.

"Yeah just a bit. Tosh fits in here though."  
"I'm Japanese." Tosh pointed out, "We weren't exactly best friends with Britain at the time."  
"No one will mind." Jack laughed, "It's a dance and everyone here is still alive"  
"Well moving on from how we look and relations between different countries during WWII, we should probably go." Lucy said and Tosh nodded.  
"Agreed"

Jack took a couple of seconds to take the sight in before he tore his eyes away from the dancers and nodded as well.

"Yeah." They walked back down the way they'd come, only this time they were moving out of other people's way. Tosh kept her bag with her laptop in close to her not risking anyone seeing or breaking it.

They walked out the door and Lucy recognised the doorman as Bilis Manger, the person who had set this whole thing up so they would free Abbadon. She was glad that she had decided to go with Jack and Tosh, she had no idea how she would have coped trying to save her friends but knowing what that would lead to. Lucy pushed all thoughts about the series finale to the back of her mind, she'd decided to not get involved and to keep everything the same and now she had to live with those consequences. It would do her no good to dwell on what could have happened. Her mind was a dark enough place at times anyway without adding to it.

"Do call again." Bilis said to Jack, who took one final glance at the hall.

"I'd love to." He replied honestly.

They got outside and it was night, the Saxon poster from earlier not on the door, no sign of the SUV anywhere, and the union flag flying from the walls.

"It's night." Tosh gasped, she and Jack ran onto the road while Lucy stayed in the doorway of the Ritz Hall "Where's the SUV? Has it been stolen?" Tosh asked, looking to Jack for the answers.

"No" Jack said, surprised with a tinge of worry in his voice, "we have." He turned back to Lucy, "You knew this would happen!" He accused her and she shrugged.

"Of course I did, do you think I wouldn't know if the rift stole two members of Torchwood?"  
"You didn't know when 17 kids were killed." He said referring to something that had happened a few months ago. Everyone had presumed that Lucy would know what was going on and be able to help, but she was as clueless as the rest of them.

"Low blow" Lucy winced, "Look I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but what were you going to do about it? And if I stayed at the hub I could have changed something vitally important and I'm sorry for not changing it as well. But there's the ripple effect and I have no idea what impact it will have. I don't want it to happen!"

"When this is all over you and I are going to have an important talk about letting these things happen." Jack said seriously and Lucy nodded in agreement.

"Fine, but can we rain check on that until after you've met and spoken to the Doctor."

Jack stared at her and Lucy inwardly cursed, she had given it away that Jack was going to travel with the Time Lord again and soon.

"Deal" He turned to Tosh who was checking her phone, "Anything?"  
"No signal."

"Well let's go back inside, that was where we were when we crossed." Jack gestured back at the hall and the three of them walked back in. Lucy knew that Jack and Tosh were angry with her but she would stick to her guns, she'd had no choice.

"We really are in 1941" Tosh breathed, she was starting to get excited at the thought that they had travelled in time, even though she was worried about how they would get back. "What if we can't get back?"

"Flotsam and jetsam slips through all the time." Jack reminded her, "we'll get back. Lucy what episode is this?"  
"Series one, episode 12." Lucy replied not sure why Jack wanted to know but didn't see any danger in telling him

"There you go." He turned back to Tosh, "Lucy said earlier that there are 31 episodes, and why would she call it series 1 if there wasn't a series 2? Therefore we have to survive this, because they wouldn't dare make an episode without you in - you're the brains of the whole operation."  
Lucy held back the wince, knowing that they did make an episode without Tosh in, 5 in fact. But that was something that no one else could ever know and she saw how Tosh grew courage from words that Jack was speaking.

"He's right you know." Lucy lied, "We'd be a mess without our technological genius. There's another 2 series to go."

"Ok, so now I just need to work out how we get home." Tosh said pushing away the fear.

"Look on the bright side." Jack laughed as more people past them, "Gives you one hell of an excuse not to go to your party."  
"I have a life there!" Tosh said annoyed at Jack, and how easily he was able to laugh the problem away "I might complain about it but those people throwing rice are my family. And they can't help us back at the Hub because I have the latest readings in here."

"Shush" Lucy said as everyone turned to look at them, "we're gaining attention. We'll get home Tosh, don't worry and you can moan at Ianto about how I got us all in this mess and caused you to miss the party and he'll put me on decaf, or even instant, for at least a week and you'll all laugh at me." Jack laughed at her as she shuddered at the idea.

"It's amazing how such a top secret organisation is scared of the idea of decaf. Come on, we need to try to blend in."

"Easy for you to say." Lucy commented wryly, "You pointed it out earlier, you two will be fine. I stand out from the crowd quite a lot." A thought came to her and she grinned, "I'm going to just say my job is classified and make them think I'm a spy. I won't technically be lying. Torchwood _is_ classified" Jack and Tosh looked at each other and Jack sighed.

"Fine. Don't cause too much trouble."  
"Would I really cause trouble?"  
"Yes" Tosh said as she passed Jack her bag and pulled off her coat.

"Ok, so maybe I would cause a bit of trouble. Honestly Jack, you tell me not to live in the shadows and be more sociable and now you want me to hide again, make up your mind."  
"Are we sure she's completely mentally stable?" Jack asked Tosh jokingly, Tosh shrugged.

"Is anyone at Torchwood completely mentally stable?"

"Probably not, although Gwen would be the closest." Lucy mused with a small shrug.

"I'm the only Asian here." Tosh hissed, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

"It means they are all shocked at how beautiful you are." Lucy said with a shrug and a smile "The women are all evil bitches and jealous because they know that all the men want to dance with you."

"Lucy try not to swear like a sailor."  
"It's not like there aren't sailors here, and it was hardly that bad. I could have said a lot worse than bitches." Lucy defended herself before nodding, "But fine I'll try."  
"And Toshiko don't worry. You're with the captain. Come on let's go to the bar and get a drink"

He walked the two women across to the bar, and was about to order when Lucy pointed something out.

"Jack do you actually have any money?"

"Err... no." Jack blinked, realising that Lucy was right. He had access to money in 1941, but didn't have any on him.

"I'll get them." A soldier said, he was standing behind them and looking at Tosh.

"Thanks," Jack said with a smile, "two waters please and a brandy."

"On one condition." The other man said as he put the money on the bar and Jack's brandy was poured.

"What?" Jack was wary of what the condition was going to be but the man simply grabbed Tosh's hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. Tosh was surprised and Jack and Lucy could see that she wanted them to come up with an excuse to get her away from there, but the two just laughed instead.

Lucy grabbed her drink and they walked away from the bar, Jack gestured that he would be back for the other two, when a woman pushed past them a frown on her face.

"Why is George dancing with a Jap?"

Lucy's smile fell instantly and before Jack could say anything she replied.

"I think the more important question is, why wouldn't he want to dance with my friend? She's gorgeous and smart and friendly. In contrast, you seem intent on judging people by what you can see which disqualifies you from being called intelligent and you don't seem friendly at all"

"Who are you?" The woman turned round and looked Lucy up and down, much like Jack had done earlier only she had a sneer on her face. "And what are you wearing? We don't want your sort here girl."

"I'm here with my friends before they go off to war, just like everyone here. And as for me and my sort - I would tell you but then I'd have to kill you."  
"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that what I do is a secret, I can't tell you."

_"JACK! TOSH! LUCY!"_ They heard Gwen's voice shouting for them, like an echo and Jack pointed at Tosh, who shot them a look that confirmed she had heard Gwen as well.

"I'm going to go rescue her. Back in a bit."

"Yeah," Lucy nodded at him but was more interested in the woman who had insulted Tosh.

"Are you trying to tell me you're a spy? You stand out more than anyone here, aren't spies supposed to blend in?" She laughed mockingly.

"No I'm not saying anything because that would be illegal. And everyone knows spies are supposed to hide in crowds, which means I can't possibly be a spy because I stand out so much."

Jack was shoved backwards by the man Tosh had been dancing with.

"Are you not going to help your friends?"

"They can help themselves." Lucy replied leaning against the wall, holding her glass. "I'm better with gun fights, hand to hand isn't my speciality."

"They don't give women guns, everyone knows that." Another soldier said, "You'd be a danger risk to everyone."

"You keep believing that." Lucy said mockingly, "And we'll ignore the ones I've got on me and the fact that I cold outshoot almost everybody in this room."  
"You brought guns into a dance hall? Who are you?"  
"I'm never off duty." Lucy mused, "Oh look, Jack seems to be doing pretty badly at blending in as well, although he is winning in that fight. "

A man stepped between Jack and George and spoke harshly to George before apologising to Jack.

"Sorry about that, the men are a bit lively tonight. It's the last day of OTU tomorrow. Apologise to the gentleman George."  
"I was only dancing." He tried to defend himself but the officer was not having any of it

"I think it was your fist in his face he didn't like, not your foxtrot"  
"I'm sorry."  
"It's ok." Jack replied, "You barely got me" There was an uncomfortable laugh before the officer spoke again.

"I think the lady also deserves an apology"  
"I'm sorry" George repeated only this one seemed to mean a bit more.

"Apology accepted" Tosh said quickly, she and Jack turned and walked back to Lucy who rolled her eyes at them, the American officer followed.

"Hey, are you a volunteer too?"  
"Yeah." Jack smiled

"I'm Captain..." They both started to introduce themselves at the same time and laughed,

"You first" Jack said.

"Captain Jack Harkness, 133rd Squadron" The stranger - _Jack_ \- said.

The Torchwood agent's face froze slightly, Tosh looked confused and Lucy just smiled.

"Look this way please." Bilis said lifting a camera and taking a photo of the two Jack Harkness' shaking hands. he pulled the negative out and passed the camera to a man next to him. "One more for the record please sir, I insist."

He walked into the middle of the group and another photo was taken, before he left.

"I should be heading off," Jack said trying to stop the conversation before it began.

"I didn't catch your names." The real Jack Harkness said stopping them

"Toshiko Sato." Tosh said, giving Jack time to make something up.

"I'm Lucy Smith." Lucy added.

"Agent Smith?" Jack Harkness said with a small knowing smile, "I heard to talking to that lady back there, trying to convince her you were a spy."  
"I wasn't trying to convince her of anything." Lucy said wryly, "But it is true that I'm a better shooter than you, and that my job is classified. But if it worries you too much thinking about my job, you could just call me Lucy."  
"Lucy it is." He shook her hand, and then looked at Jack.

"I'm Captain James Harper, 71st" Jack said shaking his hand.

"71st? That's where I'm hoping to be posted next. What's your poison?" He walked towards the bar.

"Maybe later. My friends and I were in the middle of something."

"Sure"  
"I don't drink on the job." Lucy said with a shrug, feeling sorry for the American. "But I could do with another water though."

"From what I know about your lot, you're never off the job." He replied, "But I will grab you that water."

Jack walked out of the main room into an empty hallway in silence, Tosh and Lucy followed him.  
"Why does that man have your name?" Tosh asked the minute she was sure they wouldn't be overheard, neither of them replied. Lucy because it wasn't her place to say and Jack before he didn't know how to reply. She got angry with the pair of them.

"I'm lost enough here without you two not telling me what is going on"

Jack stopped and walked back towards her.

"It's not my name." He explained. "It's his. I took his. I didn't realise he was so hot." He tried to lighten the mood but it fell flat.  
"Jack!" Tosh wasn't impressed

"I know too much." Jack replied seriously, "Lucy knows even more about certain things and a lot less about others."  
"Then share." Tosh tried

"You wouldn't want that Tosh," Lucy said sadly and quietly, "trust me, it's hard knowing these things. You can't stop it, you can't do anything that might stop it. The future of everyone in this hall belongs in our past, it's happened already."

"We have to get back." Jack said breaking the sombre mood and pointing at Tosh's bag, "What's in here?"  
"I've got half of the equation in here." Tosh explained, "The other half is back at the hub. If I can find some way of getting these figures back to base then they can combine them and open the rift and bring us back through."

"A treasure hunt through time." Lucy smiled before having an idea and looking at Jack. "Wouldn't it be easier to put the equation in a temporally sealed container in Torchwood."  
"Yes" He agree, "it would, but that needs to be the last resort. I don't want them to know I'm here. We'll go to Torchwood tomorrow if we're still here then, ok?"  
"Fine by me." Lucy shrugged and Tosh agreed.

"Well this room is empty so let's use it for now." Jack said gesturing to a room on the side.

The minute they were inside, Tosh pulled open her laptop and grabbed a piece of paper - Lucy handed her a pen from her pocket.

"It'll be easier than trying to write with a fountain pen." She explained to Jack as Tosh started writing it all down.

_"Your battery is running low."_

"Just take down everything you've got." Jack said, "in case it dies." The screen started to flash low battery, in front of the formula making it more difficult for Tosh to copy.

"Can you read it to me?" She asked, not wanting to lose any time at all in trying to get everything down.  
"Errr..." Jack moved to read over her shoulder as the computer continued to warn about the low battery "Plus 1 over 5a... sin2ax"

The laptop screen died and Tosh put the pen down, "Have you got everything?" Lucy asked

"I just want to get the exact co-ordinates of the dance hall so I can integrate them into the waveform equation."  
"I'm going to take that to mean, yes." Lucy said with a shrug, only understanding the first half of Tosh's reply.

"It means I got enough." Tosh amended with a small smile, everyone at Torchwood knew Lucy was the least comfortable with technology. She could get by easily with the stuff available to the public, and just about scrape by with all the Torchwood day to day machines, but anything more than that and she floundered.

They hadn't notice the door open until the man in the doorway spoke "What are you doing in here?"

"Private conversation about important matters" Lucy replied, as she was the first one to get over her surprise - mainly because she knew about Bilis.

"Who are you?" The man continued walking further into the office.

"Captain Ja- James Harper." Jack said stumbling over his name, "This is Toshiko Sato, a friend and mathematician," He pointed at Tosh, who closed the laptop lid and was holding it close to her chest. "and Agent Smith." This time he pointed at Lucy, "Anything more about my young friend here is classified."  
"An agent?" His voice was a mixture of impressed and mocking. "I didn't know women were allowed to do that."  
"Most people don't" Lucy replied, "It helps to keep my job secret."

"I'm Bilis," Bilis said, "the manager." he moved over to his desk and put the camera down. "You're not in full uniform Captain, and what are you wearing agent?"  
"I'm on leave" Jack replied "48 hours"

"And I'm testing the... usefulness... of these new materials" Lucy replied evasively. He made a small scoffing sound as though he didn't believe her but said nothing else. Tosh's eyes were drawn to the camera.

"That's an interesting camera"  
"It takes and delivers photos instantly"  
"I didn't know they could do that yet." Tosh replied, her mind trying to work out how she could get access to it.

"And I didn't know they made an attaché case out of metal." Bilis replied evenly, the clocks all started to chime and Bilis looked slightly more worried. "Where did you get it?"  
"London. I'm from there."  
"I would return there if I were you dear, they're coming for us now."

Jack decided it was time for the conversation to end, he put his hand on Tosh's back and gently walked her out of the room.

"Thank you for use of your office for our conversation." Lucy said before following. "We may need to use it again, we may not."  
"I didn't give my permission for you to use it in the first place." Bilis replied using the same even tone that Lucy used.

"Well then it's a good job that we don't need that permission." Lucy replied her voice slightly colder "That's the thing about war, it makes things a bit rushed. If I get information I need to act on it or read it as soon as possible, asking permission takes up to much time - after all what if I can't find you in the crowd? Goodbye Mr Manger" She turned and left the study, quickly catching up with Tosh and Jack.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hope you liked the first half of Captain Jack Harkness.**

**I had a review during the week that asked why Lucy wasn't changing anything and letting everything happen exactly as it does in the episode - the the point of direct quotes. I decided to answer it on here instead on in a PM in case anyone else was confused over all of it.  
Lucy is working on the theory that because what happens is the past for her that it's fixed and therefore she can't change it. Using the philosophy of 'you can't change history, not one line' (1st Doctor) and 'a man is alive today when he should be dead, an ordinary man, that's one of the most dangerous things in the universe' (9th Doctor). Plus it allows her to keep control of what's happening. For example if she'd told Jack that Suzie was playing with the glove and going to kill people, she would have had the glove taken off her and Gwen would likely have never joined the team. Which would have changed everything for the whole of the Torchwood universe and not necessarily for the better. In this episode she decided to go with Jack and Tosh because then she wouldn't have the dilemna of whether to open the rift and release Abaddon. I'm currently writing series 2 and things get more complicated and Owen is 'supposed' to die. I'm not going to spoil what happens there because I spent a long time working it out and thinking about the different consequence but I promise you that it's not an easy choice.  
Plus Lucy is changing things, just behind the scenes (again there is more of that in series 2). **

**And to make it clear the final pairing is Lucy/Ianto. I know a lot of people expected Ianto/Jack and so does Lucy - which causes an interesting plot point for when they get together. But things are changing because Lucy is there, she might change the 'how' things happened or the 'why' but the end point is still the same. Mostly.**

**I hope that explained things, I thought I'd already gone through this but looking back it appears early on and it's mainly implied.**

**Have a good week and I'll see you for part 2 next week.**

**Please review (they make me very happy!)**

**Rea**


	25. Chapter 25 - Cpt Jack Harkness, Part 2

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What are we going to do, Jack?" Tosh was asking her boss, "WWII, Granddad stayed in London but he was persecuted. If I stay stuck here, what will happen to me?" Her eyes were pleading with him to tell her the truth.

"I'll take care of you." Jack said simply, he looked at Lucy, "I'll take care of both of you."

"Well if I get stuck here, I'm going to London in search of a bomb that isn't a bomb." Lucy said with a grin, "I'm going to go on an adventure."

"Oh I bet you would." Jack laughed.

"This period," Tosh said, changing the subject. She could only guess that Lucy was talking about something to do with the Doctor, she didn't like being left out of the conversation and still wasn't sure if she had forgiven her friend or not for knowingly letting them get stuck in 1941. "you look like you fit in. Have you been here before?"

"Yeah" Jack said, "I can't explain it but I served in the war in 1941"  
"I could explain it if you want." Lucy said with a small smile, Jack just looked at her, "or I could not" She conceded, "sorry continue your story."

"I was undercover, I needed a false identity so I took his name."  
"Who were you before you took his name?"  
Jack refused to answer, and Lucy gave a small shake of her head to let Tosh know that this was not something that Jack was ever going to tell, it also led the Japanese woman to falsely assume that Lucy didn't know anything more than that either, this made her feel a bit better about not knowing. Lucy would never tell her differently.

"Why him?" She nodded at the captain who was talking to his friends at the bar, getting another drink.

"It was convenient." Jack said

"But if you chose his identity to steal then he..."  
"Dies in battle." He agreed, slightly sadly. It was one thing to know this objectively and to have no concerns about using his name, but now he had met the man it meant more. Suddenly his death was no longer a statistic - it was one of the curses of travelling in time.

"When?"

"Tomorrow." They stood in silence watching the group before Lucy moved.

"Well I'm going to go join them, Tosh you need those co-ordinates and one of the men down there will know."  
"Good idea. Jack?" Tosh looked at Jack, he nodded his agreement.

"... she says, I can't there's rats down there." The man who had been dancing with Tosh and fighting with Jack earlier said, he laughed and one of the other soldiers did as well, but the real Captain Jack and one other didn't seem to find it as funny.

"So," Tosh interrupted them, "Who's the best navigator here."

"Tim." George said, "he can't fly for toffee but at least when he goes down, he'll know exactly where he is." He laughed at the expense of the younger man but this time none of the others did.

"Why don't we chat over here?" Tosh said gently pulling the boy away from the rest of the group

"I give the public schoolboy a fortnight." He joked and Lucy raised an eyebrow.  
"You almost sound like you want him to die, just so you can be proved right." She said not letting any emotion into her voice.  
"No," George backtracked, "I didn't mean it like that."

"That boy's come a long way in five weeks" Jack Harkness said "as long as you boys remember your training, and _help_ each other when needed, you'll be alright." He looked at Lucy and Jack, "I'm glad you came. Shall we sit down? Agent Smith I still owe you a drink, Captain do you want anything?"

"No thanks, we may need to go rather quickly." Jack replied, as they walked towards a table, "I'd prefer to be sober if we do."

"Fair enough." he shrugged.

George seemed excited by the war and wanted to know if Lucy and Jack had any stories.

"You must have seen some action captain, you too Agent. That is if you really are a spook and I'm not convinced."

"Well let's hope you never find out for certain because that would mean we were probably sharing a mission and I can't see that going well."

"The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes." Jack said patiently, "Agent Smith here knows that more than anyone."

"Yeah, I can't wait to get up there and give Jerry what for." George said naively. "How many did you kill in the Battle of Britain sir, 26 wasn't it?"  
Jack Harkness was suddenly uncomfortable and Lucy and Jack both knew why. Talking about death was never fun, and talking about people you had killed was even less so.

"You've heard that story countless times George" He said trying to shift the conversation.

"No one's as fast as him." George continued, "Hasn't lost a man yet."

"I'll go get those drinks." The Captain said standing up, "Are you sure you don't want anything Captain?"  
"Just a water thanks, if you insist on getting me something." Jack replied

"No problem" The WWII man walked over to the bar and the table fell silent as neither Jack nor Lucy felt the need to say anything and George felt slightly uncomfortable now his captain had left.

A young woman walked up to Captain Harkness at the bar.

"Hello Jack." She said, "I know you're having a night in with the men, but I thought I'd look in. If that's all right."

"Yeah" Jack Harkness still looked uncomfortable and glanced over to Jack and Lucy, "yeah alright."

George moved away from the table to join the rest of his friends, leaving the two Torchwood agents together.

"Tosh has finished talking to Tim." Jack pointed out. They walked over to where Tosh was putting a piece of paper back in her bag. "Well?" He asked her.

"I've got everything I need." Tosh replied quietly "now I just need to find a way to get it down in a way that will last across time."  
"Ok" Jack said, "this way."

"We could use Manger's office again." Lucy commented, "I told him we might need to, he didn't seem to happy about it but there is nothing he can really do."

"Good idea." Jack said, "we'll go there and work something out."

As the three of them started to walk in the direction of the office the woman who had been unhappy about Tosh dancing with George earlier stepped between them, facing Tosh.

"I haven't seen you three here before. Which one's with you?" She looked at Jack who didn't say anything but put a hand on Lucy's arm in a silent warning.

"She's after Tim." George said, "Why else would she allow him to bore her to death about navigations."  
"Maybe she's a spy."  
"That's the other one." he pointed at Lucy.

"And I work for his majesties government." she said, only just remembering in time that King George was still alive and Elizabeth was not on the throne yet. "My pay and orders come directly from the palace."  
"The Chinese are on our side aren't they?" Another soldier said, deciding not to question Lucy.

"I'm Japanese." Tosh corrected him automatically

"You're hardly an ally, then." The woman said scornfully.

"Except she was born in London and has been a British Citizen all her life." Lucy said harshly, not going to let anyone talk about Tosh like that.

"Calm down Agent Smith." Jack said

"Whose side are you on?"  
"Leave it Audrey" George said, lots of people were watching now.

"What's in the bag?"  
"Nothing."

"If you've got nothing to hide then open the bag." Audrey pulled at the bag and Tosh held tight to it, Jack grabbed the woman's arms and pulled her back.

"She can't." Jack said finally getting involved with the conversation, "her work is top secret, just as much as Agent Smith's. She's a decoder for the Brits."

"Without ladies like her, we'd have no way of defending the country." Jack Harkness said handing Jack and Lucy their glasses of water before picking up his brandy from the bar. "And who knows what Agent Smith has done to help the war effort." He lifted his glass, "To Toshiko and Agent Smith."

"Toshiko does all the clever stuff." Lucy said quickly, "she deserves the praise more than me"

"To Toshiko" Everyone around them said, Lucy gave Tosh an embarrassed smile.

"I need Bilis' camera. Photographs last don't they?" Tosh said quietly to Jack.

"Sure you don't want us to come with you?" He asked, Jack Harkness interrupted them.

"You can't go yet, I've just got you a drink"  
"It's fine." Lucy said before Tosh could say anything, "I'll go with Tosh and you stay with Captain Harkness" She followed Tosh across the dancehall towards Bilis' office.

"So" She said jokingly, "do you think I'm seeing things in the interaction between the two Jack's that aren't there?" Tosh grinned.

"They do appear to be rather close very quickly"

"What was it you told Gwen - he'll shag anything if it's sexy enough. I would say Jack is sexy enough."  
"Which one?"  
"Both of them."  
"But this in 1941 though, even if he likes guys doesn't mean he'll act on it." Tosh pointed out as Lucy closed the office door .

"Maybe not though, he _does_ go back to war tomorrow"

"Maybe." Tosh picked up the camera and put the piece of paper with the formula on onto the table so she could take the photo. She positioned the camera and quickly took it, pulling out the Polaroid and shaking it.

"Starting to be a habit." Billis said as he walked in

"I told you we may need to use your office again." Lucy said seriously. "My colleague and friend here needed to use your camera to photograph some important information so we can inspect it without damaging it."

"This little beauty is very unusual and rare." Bilis said walking forward and making the two women feel more and more uncomfortable although Lucy hid it a lot better than Tosh. "Much like the two of you."

"Well we really must be going." Lucy said picking up the piece of paper, "After you Toshiko"

"I could think of better things to photograph than numbers, my dear."

"Yes." Lucy agreed, "There are many things I would prefer to use that camera on but unfortunately there is also a war going on. Landscape scenes aren't that useful in defeating Hitler whilst numbers are."

The two walked through the door as quickly as they could without running.

"Do call again." Manger's voice shouted after them and Tosh shivered.

"That man gives me the creeps."

"Gah," Lucy grimaced, "I agree. Creep on TV and creepier in real life. But I'm liking the power that comes with this spy thing."  
"You use it well." Tosh commented, "I had no idea what to say to him."

"I thought I'd just bullshit like Jack does, it seemed to work." Lucy smirked and Tosh smiled back, "Speaking of," she continued "where is the Captain?"

"Which one?"

"Either, both." Lucy shrugged, "I'd be surprised if they weren't together. Find one Jack and we'll find the other."

Tosh stopped at the door and nodded towards it, "If we sort it out outside less people will notice. I'll use the wrapper from Grandfather's card to put the photo in."

"Sure" Lucy agreed, she stood watch on Tosh while the Japanese woman sorted out the photo and put in the plastic wrapper.

"I hope the rest of the team like treasure hunts." She said, thinking out loud. Lucy laughed,

"Oh I'm sure Owen hates them. You know what he's like... Continually complaining about how much effort things are."

"Well we'll have to hope it's Gwen or Ianto then." Tosh said standing up, "If we stick it in the electrical box just round the corner, that should keep it safe and dry"

"Brilliant." Tosh took one last look at it as they turned the corner.

"Oh no." She breathed.

"What?"

"It's missing the first couple of equations."

"Shit" Lucy sighed, "Ok well let's get these ones safe and then work something out for the others. Come on." She tugged the doors open and slid the photo as far back as she could. "That will have to do."

The air raid siren filled the sky, bringing fear to everyone to heard it. Tosh shoved one of the side doors hoping it would open but no luck.

"COME ON!" Lucy shouted, "main door, let's go."

Tosh hugged her bag tight to her check and ran with Lucy back inside the Ritz Dance Hall. They bumped into Jack in the crowd of people who were running for the bomb shelter.

"I didn't get the first part of the equation into the photo." Tosh said as the three of them moved with the crowd into the safety of the bomb shelter.

"But the rest is outside." Lucy said optimistically, "When they find it they'll keep looking."

Once inside the bomb shelter, the atmosphere was tense but relieved, everyone was aware that their house and some of their friends may not be safe but right now they were and that was all that matters. Tosh stood in an entrance to a side room, Lucy supposed it was used for storage, no one ever knew how long they would be in the shelter for.

"I need to write the rest of the equation," Tosh said to Jack and Lucy. "I'll find something else to write it in, ink will fade."  
"I'll help you." Lucy said suddenly remembering what Tosh was planning on using, "Jack you stay here with... Jack." She pointed at the other Captain who smiled at their boss.

Tosh and Lucy quickly moved into the storage room before the Captain could tell them not to. Tosh immediately started looking through the cupboards for something to use, Lucy waited and Tosh opened a tin.

"This is air tight, it'll do."

"It will have to." Lucy said wincing and offering her hand to Tosh, who looked at her confused.

"What's that for?"  
"You don't seriously think I'm going to let you slice your hand open do you?"

"Well..."  
"Well nothing, and do it quickly before I change my mind."

"Thank you, and sorry." Tosh said quickly brushing as much of the dirt off as possible before slicing it across Lucy's palm.

Lucy winced again but didn't make any sound to show that it hurt, Tosh felt bad as she dipped her pencil in the pool of blood and started to write. After about half a minute Tosh had finished and the band had started to play again, she also wrote a small personal note just in case they didn't get out of this alive.

"Do you want me to write anything?" Tosh asked. Lucy shook her head.

"Nah, let's get back to the two captains. You got anything I could use as a bandage in that bag?"

"Sorry." Tosh said again.  
"Dammit" Lucy said jokingly, "I liked this t-shirt and now I have to rip it."

"I'm sure someone will have a first aid kit." Tosh commented as they walked out, the air raid siren sounding again to give the all clear.

"I hope so."

They joined Jack and Tosh said quietly, "It's all done and hidden."

"Well done."

"What happened to her hand?" Tim, the navigator that Tosh had been speaking to earlier asked.  
"I slipped." Lucy said

"The spy slipped over, oh dear what hope is there for the rest of us?" George said.  
"I'm human and misjudged my step in the dark," Lucy said sarcastically, "happens to even the best of us sometimes."

"I've got a first aid kit." Tim said, still primarily talking to Tosh. "If you want I can go and get it..."  
"That would be brilliant, thank you." Tosh replied and Lucy turned to Jack as the two disappeared to find it.

"How is it they are talking about me but I'm the invisible one?" Jack just laughed.

"You'd better go catch them up."

"I'm off. You just want time to talk to the Captain."

"And is that a problem Agent?" Jack said slightly mockingly.

"Not at all Captain," Lucy replied seriously, "But don't forget that we could get new orders and have to leave any second."

"I know. Now go get your hand dealt with." They had been walking as they talked and were among the last to leave the shelter, Lucy split from the two men to find Tosh and Tim waiting for her by the door. Tim was carrying a first aid bag.

"Let me poor some water on it to clean it and then you can bandage it up." Lucy said to the pair of them.

"I was telling Tim how you cut it on a nail." Tosh said seriously, "He's got some disinfectant in there as well."

"I'll be fine without, really." Lucy said but Tosh was not budging, she felt bad enough about having to cut Lucy's hand she didn't want to be the one to let it get an infection too.

"You know that your _work_ _doctor_ won't approve of that." With that last sly comment, Lucy knew that Tosh had won. Owen would not be happy if the wound wasn't disinfected and Tosh would be sure to tell him, she could deal with the disapproval from the doctor but the lecture after was not worth it, and he wouldn't let her down on the range in case she aggravated it. He had threatened her with that before and when she had complained Jack had said that although she might be the weapons expert Owen was the doctor and in matters to do with health and the body Owen was in charge and his orders overruled everyone's.

"No" She sighed, "he wouldn't like it at all. Ok, I'll go clean it and then you can poison me with disinfectant before bandaging it up."

With that she left for the bathroom but not before hearing Tosh laugh and tell Tim that she was just being dramatic and not to worry.

10minutes later and Lucy's hand was neatly bandaged up.

"Thanks" She said to Tim, Tosh stood a little bit further away looking at Jack and Jack who were sitting up on the balcony talking to each other.

"No problem." Tim replied, looking over Lucy's shoulder at Tosh.

"You know you could ask her to dance." Lucy said with a smile.  
"What?" He was worried and shocked that he had been caught out.  
"Tosh, you've been looking at her all night and tomorrow you go off to war. You could ask her to dance with you."

"But after what happened to George..." Tim said stumbling over his words.

"George grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor without even saying hello." Lucy said calmly, "I'll hold the bag full of important secrets and you can take her onto the dance floor."

"Do you think she'll say yes?" He asked hopefully.  
"I'm sure she will but one word of warning though." Lucy said turning serious, "we may have to leave at any minute. So if that's mid-dance it's mid-dance, so I suggest you ask her before you run out of time." Tim nodded and visibly gathered his courage

"Ok, thank you Agent Smith."  
"No problem" Lucy replied, she watched Tim walk over to Tosh and speak to her quietly, Tosh seemed a bit surprised and held her bag tighter but Tim just pointed at Lucy who smiled at the pair and nodded. Tosh sighed and then smiled at the soldier, she walked over to Lucy and handed her the bag and the laptop.

"Look after it."  
"I'm not going to break it." Lucy sighed, "Now go and dance and enjoy 1941 for a while, there is nothing else we can do now. Owen, Ianto and Gwen will get us back and if not tomorrow we'll go to Torchwood and put it in a time sealed container."  
"Are you sure?" Tosh had to check

"Yes!" She laughed, "Now dance and I'll stay her looking after your stuff."

"Thank you." Tosh walked back over to Tim and offered her hand, the two walked onto the dance floor together and, slightly awkwardly at first, they started to dance.

Five minutes later Jack Harkness walked past her looking upset and confused, Lucy decided to stay silent. Jack followed and lent against the wall with her watching Tosh and Tim.

"When did she get onto the dance floor?"  
"About five minutes ago." Lucy replied, "I had to prompt Tim to ask her, I think he was a bit scared."  
"Of Toshiko?"

"Of women in general." They continued to watch the pair dance and have fun in silence before Jack spoke again.

"Tomorrow is their last training exercise, just another day."

"You don't need to tell me." Lucy said kindly but Jack continued.

"They go out on a sortie and are surprised by two formation of Messerschmitts. He destroys three of the enemy." Jack gave a small laugh, "His men listen to his whoops of joy over the radio. Then it all goes quiet. He can't bail out because his whole plane is on fire. But his men all make it back to safety. But there is nothing I can do him."

"He was a good Captain." Lucy agreed, "I always meant to ask though Jack, how did no one know you stole his name. Forms are easy to fill out or get rid of but they'll be plenty of people who met or worked with the Captain."

"It had been long enough." Jack shrugged, "Those who worked with him were either all posted elsewhere or were simply too focused on the war to care. I've got a question for you as well." Jack said, "seeing as we're answering them, do you know why I'm like this? Do you know what happened and if there is a reason for it?"  
"Yes, yes and no." Lucy replied sadly, watching her friend have fun. "And I can't tell you, you'll find out soon though. I promise. And I'm sorry."  
"Why?"  
"For not stopping this, for the consequences of this." She gave a cold laugh, "for the disaster that's about to happen in two weeks time, for the next year."

"It's not your fault"  
"Feels like it sometimes." She said coldly, "whenever I think about it, when I can't sleep I end up coming with theories of how to stop it and they get madder and madder but in every case I can think of at least one feasible way to stop it from happening. And I want to," She pulled her eyes of Tosh and Tim and looked at Jack. "I really want to stop it, that's why I had to come with you."

"It's ok." Jack said seriously, looking straight at her, "whatever happens I forgive you because it's NOT your fault."

Lucy shrugged and looked away again, the song was ending and it appeared Tim was trying to persuade Tosh to dance the next one as well.  
"When you meet the Doctor, will you tell him I'm sorry, and that the pair of you should laugh and love life in all its glory and I'll watch you run! And that I'm sorry for how cheesy that sounds." She smiled and then noticed Captain Jack Harkness walking towards them.  
"I promise." Jack said.

Lucy grinned at him.

"Looks like Tosh isn't the only Torchwood agent on the dance floor tonight."

"What do you mean?" Jack was confused and Lucy nodded at Jack Harkness who took Jack's hand and the pair walked onto the dance floor together slowly.

_'There were angels dancing at the Ritz'_. The singer was the only one to keep going as though nothing was wrong, everyone else stopped and watched the two Captains dance in each other's arms.

Tosh and Tim walked over to join Lucy, Tim didn't look comfortable with what was happening but knew better than to say anything about it.

The two men stopped dancing and moved as though to kiss when a bright light burst from behind them.

"Let's go." Lucy said to Tosh.  
"What now?" Tim was confused

"Yes we've got to go now. I'm sorry, I had a good night." Tosh replied as Lucy called onto the dance floor.

"Jack!"

The two women started moving towards the light as quickly as possible and Lucy tried to ignore the cliché.

"Jack, we need to get out!" Tosh shouted

"You have to Jack!" Lucy added

"We need you." Tosh begged

They didn't see what Jack said to Jack, but they did watch as he started to walk away before walking back and snogging the WWII Captain. This time when Jack walked away he didn't go back, Jack Harkness saluted them and the world of WWII started to fade away. They walked further into the light and arrived back home. Cardiff, 2007.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Gwen was sitting in her car outside, she looked as though she had given up but as soon as she spotted them she smiled and jumped out.

"You're alive! You made it." She hugged Jack and then Toshiko, before hugging Lucy as well. "You made it."  
"Yes and you're hugging me." Lucy said awkwardly. The other laughed and Gwen stepped back again.

"Yes, well, high emotions and all that. I'll go back to being annoyed at you pretty soon. I'm just glad you're all alive."  
"Let's go back to the hub." Jack said, pushing the emotion of the day to the back of his mind.

"Tosh you've got a birthday party to get to haven't you." Lucy said with a smile, "You'd be late but you could still go."  
"All I want to do it is to go home." Tosh sighed, "I'll call my mother later."

"If you're sure..." Jack smiled at her

"I'm sure. Now let's go home." Tosh replied with a smile

"I'll call the others and let them know." Gwen said, "Are any of you coming with me?"

"I will" Tosh replied once it became clear that Jack was not going to volunteer.

"Thanks Tosh. Come on."

The drive back in the SUV with Jack was silent but Lucy was glad, she didn't want to talk either. The sight waiting for them in the Hub was Ianto holding a tray with coffee and a smile whilst Owen sat at Lucy's desk with his shoulder and fresh bullet wound showing.

"I... er, I wasn't happy about the idea of opening the rift." Ianto explained as Lucy carefully held the mug so as not to hit against her wound.  
"Good shot" Lucy commented, "I presume he was moving at the time and you weren't aiming for his heart."

"I wasn't _that_ angry." Ianto said with his eyebrows raised and Jack smiled at them.

"I'm going up to my office."

Lucy shook her head at Gwen to stop her from following and the Captain walked up in silence and locked himself away.

"Tosh, can you help me over here?" Owen called, Tosh nodded and walked over to the doctor and helped him deal with the bullet wound.

Lucy closed her eyes and drunk her coffee, taking in the sounds and smell of the hub. She might not like the consequences of Owen using the rift and she knew that things were going to get bad very quickly but for now she didn't care. She was home, the only thing the only way it could improve would be if there was a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes laughing and running around.

"Still no sign of Bilis" Ianto said as he searched for the manager/caretaker.

"The world didn't end after all." Owen replied "Good job you're a crap shot."

"I was aiming for your shoulder"

"Please stop arguing" Lucy said opening her eyes, "Owen you know full damn well that it was a good shot and he was aiming for your shoulder."

"I know it was war time." Tosh said sadly, "but it was beautiful"

"There were angels dancing at the Ritz." Lucy agreed before looking at Tosh and nodding at Jack's office. "Go talk to him."

Tosh smiled, she put the bowl for Owen down and walked to Jack's office, everyone else looked at Lucy.

"What happened?"  
"Nothing happened, we were with Captain Jack Harkness." Lucy replied, "But it was 1941, they were soldiers and it's now 2008. How many of the people we spoke to do you think are still alive?" She drained her drink and put the mug on Ianto's desk.

"I know it's only early afternoon, but I've just lived through a night during the blitz would anyone really care if I went home?"

Owen, Ianto and Gwen all looked at each other and shrugged.

"Go on, you may as well clock out early." Gwen said with a smile "We'll be ok here without you."

"I'll keep my mobile on." Lucy said as she let herself accept her tiredness and the adrenaline crash that always happened after a long case.

"You're a fat lot of use to us here anyway, sweetheart." Owen mocked. Normally Lucy would be annoyed by Owen calling her sweetheart but she found herself grateful - it was just another thing that reminded her of the hub, of Torchwood, of home.

"Tell Jack where I've gone." Lucy said "I'll leave the car here Ianto and get a taxi."

"Do you want me to wake you for dinner?" He asked

"Knock on the door but if I don't respond just let me be." Lucy replied, "I feel like I could sleep through a month of Sundays."

"Till tomorrow will have to do." Owen said sarcastically, "now scram before we change our minds."  
"See ya." Lucy smiled at them and walked out the cog doors out of the hub and into Cardiff.


	26. Chapter 26 - End of Days, Part 1

**A/N: Enjoy the beginning of the end**

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 28th April (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

Lucy had surprisingly slept quite well after travelling back from 1941; it turned out spending a night in WWII and almost getting trapped there, was a sure fire way of exhausting yourself. The next morning when she and Ianto came into work however was a different story. Lucy knew in advance that this was going to happen and that it was a big deal, it was the end of series 1 and the next two days were going to be full steam ahead. However she hadn't told the rest of the group anything about this, so to them she just appeared unnaturally fidgety as April ended and election day grew closer.

Lucy walked through the lounge so she could have some breakfast, to see Ianto already fully dressed and watching the news. She stopped and joined him as the BBC presenter told tales of men dressed as Roman soldiers and UFOs over the Taj Mahal, Ianto just passed her a thermos flask of coffee that he had already prepared for her.

"It's begun then." Lucy sighed tiredly, as she started to drink the heavenly nectar. "I mean the repercussions from bringing us back."

"If begun means people are saying this is the 'End of Days' then yes it's begun." Iant replied absentmindedly "You'd better get dressed, we need to get to work."

"Sure, it not like we get a day off with this job." She said putting the thermos down, turning round and walking back into her room

"You knew what you were signing on for." Ianto replied, there was a short pause while Lucy got dressed and then Ianto looked at his watch and called out, "Jack expects us in 15 minutes."

"It's a 10 minute car journey at the best of times." Lucy shouted back, suddenly rushing to get ready, all vestiges of sleep gone, as coffee and blind panic woke her up.

"Well you'd better get a move on then. I've not been late before I don't intend to be late today."

Lucy came out of her room about 30 seconds later, her leather jacket was draped over one arm as she hopped from one foot onto the other to do up the zips on her boots.

"You've never been late for work?" She asked in surprise as she pulled her jacket on and grabbed her keys

"I like to be on time." Ianto replied.

"I know that but still..." She trailed off as she grabbed the thermos from the top of the bookcase. "Ok I'm ready to go."

"Just over a minute" Ianto said glancing at his stop watch. "Not bad" He opened the front door and the pair walked out, shutting it behind them.

"I've got a toothbrush in my locker." Lucy said, "I'll do them when I get there and you can make sure to give me one of the croissants or pain au chocolate with my coffee this morning. I need food."

"It's a good thing I keep the kitchen semi-stocked." Ianto said with a smirk, "Otherwise where would you be?"  
"Well I wouldn't be about to get in the car to go to work." She grumbled jokingly, "I'd be on my way to Tesco's and then work."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"And I heard but did not understand" Ianto read aloud "and I said, 'Master, what is the end of all these things?' And he said, 'Go, Daniel for the things are closed up and sealed until the end of time.'" he snapped the Bible shut, "Daniel 12, verse 10."

"Sounds a bit close for comfort." Gwen sad with a wry smile.

"This machine's on the blink" Owen complained rubbing at the fresh gunshot wound in his shoulder from where Ianto had shot him the day before. "Keeps losing power. Sorry don't let me stop your portents of doom, or have you finished?"

"No, plenty more where that came from." Ianto picked up another book. "Abaddon, the Great Devourer, who'll lead the world into shadow."

Lucy's head shot up from her desk where she had been reading over reports of the happenings across the world.

"Did you say Abaddon?" She asked trying, and failing, to sound casual.

"Yes." Ianto replied and they all looked at her, "Why is it important?"  
"No, it's just..." She sighed, and tried to steady her resolve in not telling Jack that she knew this story until this was all over although she was sure that he would work it out. She had commented about needing to be with him and Tosh the day before because she didn't want to be in the hub due to the consequences of their actions. "I've heard the name before that's all. Never mind."

"Thanks Ianto." Jack got up from his desk and walked over to join them in the main area, "I could do without the superstition. You people love any story that denies the randomness of existence."  
"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better."

"Ok, I've been fielding calls all night, the government, UNIT, the CIA. Half the Western world and a good portion of the Eastern are all asking the same question. Is this anything to do with us?"

"And is it?" Gwen asked from her desk on a slightly lower level.

"Conference room now." Jack said as a reply, they all exchanged glances and walked up to the conference room.

"I've run a profile on every reported temporal anomaly," Tosh started explaining as they all stood around the room, "and tracked any physical or temporal pattern."

She put the information up on the main screen which was showing a map of the world with dots for each place an anomaly had occurred. The team watched in horror as lines from every dot connected them with Cardiff. Gwen summed up their thoughts.

"Shit."

"The cracks in time trace back here to the rift." Jack explained "This city, this Hub, is the centre. What you are seeing around the world are ripples and aftershocks." He looked at Owen "The rift is splintering because of you."  
"What?" Owen wasn't impressed

"He did save our lives Jack." Lucy felt she had to point this out, "You might have been ok but Tosh and I would almost certainly be dead if it wasn't for Owen."

"You opened the rift without knowing what you were doing. You've caused the temporal cracks to widen. Time is seeping through."

"If it wasn't for me you three would still be stuck in the 1940's."

"He was trying to do the right thing." Lucy defended him, "Just like Rose was trying to when she caused the rift to open in the first place or on Satellite 5, surely intentions are important here Jack?"

"I don't need you using some cryptic code of people we don't know to try and keep me out of trouble." Owen snapped at her, Ianto rose to defend her but Jack gave him a look and he stayed silent.

"Are we going to sit crying around into our lattes or are we going to do something about it?" The medic asked sarcastically.

"Bring those who've fallen through time back here, into the vaults." Jack said calmly keeping his temper under control.

"And do what with them?"

"We'll deal with phase one first, then I'll tell you about phase two."  
"You can't control time, you can't send them back. What are you gonna do?"

"We'll think of something!" Jack shouted before calming down when he saw them all look uncomfortably at each other. "Hey, this is not the end of the world. Trust me on that."

"If it helps the sun expands causing the world to end eons in the future, the Doctor was there. It was in the year something-apple-something." Lucy said quietly.

"Exactly." Jack said, "That means that the world doesn't end now. If you don't believe me, believe Lucy."  
"But how do we know that our actions haven't changed anything?" Gwen asked

"Because..." Lucy couldn't think of any answer apart from to tell them that she knew how this episode ended and what they would all do in the next 48 hours. Jack caught her eye and gave a small shake of his head; it appeared her guess was correct, Jack had worked out that she knew and wanted to keep it secret from the rest of the team.

"We can't rely on Lucy's knowledge." Jack said seriously, "Time doesn't work like that and it doesn't help us do our jobs to the best of our ability. But right now Lucy knows that the Doctor is there when the world ends and that it is not now."

"Right now he's moping and next week he picks up a new companion. I know that because it's the day before election day" She shrugged, "Some things stick in your mind and Martha said she needed to be back the next day for work and to vote, the Doctor got there a day late."  
"So you know who the next Prime Minister is then?" Tosh asked and Lucy was grateful for the release of tension that was leaving the room.

"I think most people now whose going to win this election." Lucy replied, "Mr Saxon is miles ahead in the polls."

"Spoilers." Jack said with a small smile.  
"Not spoiling anything, I'm confirming what you all think. If I wanted to spoil anything I would tell you what his first act in office was... or something like that." Lucy had done her best to not show her opinions on 'Mr Saxon' in front of the team. She hated that she couldn't stop him but for now she needed to make sure that Cardiff and the world survived before that problem occurred.

The computer alarm started beeping which distracted all of them, Ianto looked to see what the issue was.

"Priority one attendance requested at the hospital. Mortality rate's gone through the roof. They are sealing off the area, designating a hot zone."

"I'll go." Owen said, he walked to leave the room.

"Tosh go with him." Jack ordered

"No thanks." Owen replied as he put his earpiece in, "I'm fine on my own."  
"And you'll be even better with me alongside." Tosh said firmly grabbing her own earpiece "Shut up and come on."

"Did you have to pick on him in public like that?" Gwen asked Jack with an accusing tone in her voice.

"All of our actions have consequences." Jack responded coldly

"And all your staff have feelings, Jack, even Owen."

"Well you would know." Jack said and walked away, Lucy and Ianto made a point not to look at Gwen after the mention of her affair with the doctor.

"He brought you back." She said to him as her phone went off, "Would you rather be stuck in World War II? Hello?" She answered the phone and her annoyance at Jack disappeared as she heard the worried and panicked voice on the other end of the phone. "Ok, we'll be right there." She said before hanging up.

"It was Andy, they've got someone for us in the cells. Didn't know who else to call but it sounds like they managed to capture a Roman soldier."

"Ok, Lucy you come with us. Ianto make sure the cells are ready for all the inmates that are going to start flooding in, get anything ready that you think needs to be ready and make sure that we're on full alert. Let us know if we're needed anywhere else. You are the eyes and ears."

"No problem."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When they got to Cardiff Prison, Andy was waiting for them and brought up some CCTV footage on the TV screen.

"Double murder." He explained, "Stabbed two blokes in Penarth. Brutal, it was. No mercy. What are we supposed to do? He doesn't speak a word of English." Andy moved from the desk and opened the door to the cells "And he's dressed as a bloody Roman soldier."

"He's not dressed as a Roman soldier," Jack contradicted the police officer, "he _is_ a Roman soldier and he's shouting in Latin."  
"What I want to know is how you managed to capture him." Lucy said, "I mean no offence to the Cardiff Police force, but I think his training is a bit more intense that yours."

"Tasers." Andy said simply, "We managed to surround him and used tasers."  
"Yeah, that would work."

"Well the only word I could pick out of his shouting was Geligaer." Andy was obviously unsure of how to pronounce the word but Gwen said it perfectly.

"Gelligaer?" She asked before explaining to the others what it meant. "There's a Roman fort out in Gelligaer. Built around 75 AD"

"So he was on his way there..." Lucy said

"Time splintered, and he ended up here." Jack completed

"Excuse me." Andy interrupted them, they all turned to look at him. "Hi, any time you feel like talking sense..."

"History is broken." Lucy explained simply, "This guy was walking down a road in 75AD Wales and he ended up here instead."

"Yeah, that still doesn't make sense. I can understand the words separately..."  
"Think of occasions where time travel has gone wrong in sci-fi stories." Lucy shrugged, "that's pretty much what's happened."  
"In Cardiff?"  
"Across the world" Jack amended.

"You're actually being serious aren't you." Andy said, looking at Gwen. "They are actually serious? Gwen, love, please tell me that they are not being serious."

"Andy!" Gwen said loudly, "They are being serious."  
"This sort of thing just doesn't happen." Andy complained as they walked down the corridor to the cell the soldier was in. "Not in Cardiff."  
"Just because you can't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't true." Jack said.

"I'm sure Andy is fully capable of understanding the concept, can't you Andy?" Lucy asked with a comforting smile and Andy gave a small nod. "Exactly. Jack it's not that he _can't_ understand it just to anyone from the 21st Century, it's a hell of a lot to take in and it's easier to deny it. The whole culture says that these are just stories."  
"I know it sounds mad, Andy, but..." Gwen was saying

"All right, say I do believe you, which I don't, 'cause it's bollocks, but say I do. How exactly are we meant to handle a prisoner from 2,000 years ago? I mean has he got the same rights as anyone else? How's this gonna work with the GPS?"

"We'll take him off your hands." Jack said opening a small tin box with a needle full of sedative in it. He opened the latch and the soldier started shouting at them in Latin.

"Under any other circumstances an exuberant Roman soldier would be my idea of a perfect morning." Jack joked as he opened the door of the cell, Lucy and Gwen shut it behind him.

"Everyone's saying it you know." Andy said. "At work, on the streets. Do you think this is the end of the world?"

"Oh Andy don't be silly." Gwen laughed but it didn't reach her eyes which showed worry, pity and fear. "Do you think the world's gonna end on your shift?"

"I've seen you use that smile on a lot of people." He continued seriously.

"What smile?"

"The smile you use to reassure people when deep down you know everything is going to shit."

"I don't have a smile."

"Yeah you do." Lucy said, joining the conversation for the first time. "You don't really know me Andy, except when we take over your crime scene and I'm sure you have an instinctive hate for all members of Torchwood; we keep you guys in the dark and stop your investigations. So I'm not sure if you'll believe me when I tell you. But the world is not going to end. Yes right now everything is kind of shit - time not working properly is one hell of a problem. But we can and will fix it. If the world ends on your shift it's just bad luck, if it ends on ours it's probably our fault. And I really don't want the blame, guilt and paperwork that comes with ending the world."

Andy stared at her as though he was trying to work out if she was being serious or not when Jack banged on the door to let them know if was safe to open it again. Gwen and Lucy joined him inside the cell while Andy went back to the desk.

"If Owen opened the rift to get you three back, can't we do the same for these people?" Gwen asked as Jack scanned the unconscious body. "We've still got the rift manipulator" Jack scoffed in response.

"There's a world of difference." he explained, "We're talking about taking control of time, not bringing three people back from the past. Besides look at the damage, Owen caused. We mess with it further we'll be putting the whole planet in danger." Gwen still seemed uncertain so Jack looked at her directly, "Have I ever let you down?"

Gwen smiled at him and discretely shook her head, Lucy pretended to think and Jack smirked at her.

"Lucy whatever you are thinking don't say it."

"I wasn't going to say anything."  
"Sure you weren't. "

"I'm going to talk to Andy, let him know we're taking his prisoner." Gwen said as she walked out of the cell. Lucy and Jack watched her leave before getting back to work.

"What are you scanning for?"  
"Time damage, general state of health, anything like that."  
"So anything and everything that could possibly be useful but probably isn't." Lucy translated "Time damage, is that like my background radiation?"

"I don't know, this could be dangerous whilst your 'void stuff' is perfectly safe."

"Unless someone opens a gate into the void near me, then I get dragged into hell."  
"Well yes, apart from that." Jack looked up and saw Gwen staring into one of the empty cells further up the corridor.

"Gwen." He called but she didn't respond. "Gwen! Come on" She looked back at them and Jack shrugged at her, "Go on, hustle." Gwen walked into the cell and seemed to look around. Lucy sighed and walked over to join her.

"What's up?"  
"There was Billis, he was talking into my mind, but..."  
"Well let's deal with Mr Roman Soldier and then we can worry about what Billis Manger was doing."

"Yeah." Gwen said so distracted she didn't bother arguing with Lucy. "Yeah, I'll go do that..."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Are you sure it was the same guy?" Jack asked Gwen as they finished putting the unconscious soldier into one of their cells.

"It was definitely him." Gwen replied, "Billis, the caretaker at the dance hall."  
"He was..." Lucy struggled for the right term, "too keen to meet us and to ask questions."

"That doesn't mean anything though, but that's all he said; sorry?"

"Yup"

"But what's he got to be sorry for?"  
"I don't know."  
"Something in the future?" Lucy asked knowing she was probably skirting to close to the truth but wanting to put the idea into Jack's head. "He knew who we were Jack, knew enough to make sure we had our photo taken with him so they would find it and then to cross out some of the equation so they'd have to use the rift."  
"He could be apologising for that." He reasoned

"But if that was all part of his plan why would he apologise?" Gwen asked

"Exactly." Lucy jumped on Gwen's strand of thought, "Which I why I think he's apologising for something that hasn't happened yet. The plan isn't over."

"Coming through" Ianto shouted as he walked through the door to the cells with a weevil in one hand and weevil spray in the other. The weevil snarled at them and Jack automatically stood in front of the two women in defence. Ianto just raised the weevil spray at it and it calmed down as he shoved it in the cell.

"Thirteen more reports of weevils on the loose. We're not going to keep up at this rate."

"Everything's on the increase."  
"Can we stop them from making that noise?" Gwen asked

"If you've got any ideas." Lucy said sarcastically

"Maybe they're time-sensitive." Jack mused, "this disturbance may be too much for them."  
"It would explain why they stay in Cardiff." Lucy agreed, "What if they feed off that energy? We're one of the most time-sensitive places in the world and that's not including all the times the Doctor lands here, even though he prefers London."

"Well we're now full in all vaults across all nine levels." Ianto said looking at the weevil before turning to look at Jack. "Do you want me to activate the vaults below? It's just, we've never used them since I've been here."

"Do it." Jack nodded and Lucy had to think for a few seconds to even remember how to get to the vaults below. "Gwen maybe you're right. Let's run a search on your dance hall buddy. We need to find him, Lucy a word."  
"Ok." The three of them left Ianto in the cells alone, Gwen going on ahead and Jack pulling Lucy into a different corridor so they could talk in private.

"You know about this don't you?" Jack asked not bothering to beat about the bush. "This is an episode."  
"Yeah." Lucy nodded, "Series finale of series 1."  
"And something happens next week with the elections as well." It wasn't a question but Lucy replied anyway.

"Yeah series finale of series three of Doctor Who."  
"So that's going to be a big deal as well?"  
"Did you ever know of a TV series that didn't end on a high?" She asked sarcastically

"Why don't you want the rest of the team to know?"  
Lucy shrugged, "I don't know, and I'm sure if they think about it they'll work it out too. But if they think I don't know I can't answer any questions - not that I would normally anyway. But..."  
"I get it."  
"Jack I don't want this to happen. It's not..."  
"It's fine. You do whatever needs to be done but it's nice to know that we get through this. This is why you came with us to WWII wasn't it?"  
"Yeah" She sighed, "it meant I didn't have to make the choice. I'm such a fucking coward."  
"No you're not." Jack said sternly, "Don't be so stupid. And don't let the others know that you knowledge of how this ends until after, even if you have to lie to them. That's an order Lucy. You _must_ let this happen as it was supposed to"

Lucy nodded her understanding and Jack sighed

"Let's go." He went ahead as Lucy decided to hang back to think about the conversation and for Ianto, so she could talk to him about what was happening. It turned out to be a bad idea.

Lucy had forgotten all about the projections that appeared to the members of Torchwood and tried to get them to open the rift, it hadn't even crossed her mind until she turned round to see a blonde haired, blue eyed child standing next to her.

"Becky." She breathed and the little girl just smiled at her.

"You should open the rift Lu." Becky said to her, Lucy noticed she was younger and looking identical to how she had before the accident and was wearing the clothes she had been wearing that day. The day of their last happy memory at home, laughing and joking in the park before the whole world changed. Lucy stared at Becky and reached out to try and touch her, but pulled her hand back before she could be disappointed.

"I can't open it Becky." Lucy said, knowing it wouldn't make a difference.

"You should open it and come home." Becky insisted, "It's the only way, stop people dying and come home, you don't belong here."

"I'm not going to open the rift."  
"Don't you want to come back home? Come back to me?" Becky asked and Lucy wanted to do nothing more than pull her baby sister, her little girl, into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be ok. That Lucy wouldn't live and die in an alternate universe, in a TV show where neither of them were born because their parents never met.

"I would love to come home." Lucy breathed, "But the rift..."

"Open the rift, come home." Becky said before she faded out of sight and Lucy found herself just staring at a corridor.

A few seconds later Ianto walked up to her, looking pale and Lucy realised that he must have just seen the vision of Lisa, now things had started they were spiralling quickly out of control.

"Come on." Lucy said, as though nothing was wrong "let's go join the others, Owen and Tosh will be back soon."

"Yeah." Ianto said distractedly, he pulled himself together as they walked up the stairs towards the central area of the hub. They got there just as Owen and Tosh walked back in, Owen looked annoyed and Tosh looked just as distracted as Ianto had been and Lucy was pretending not to be.

"Owen" Jack called over, "How was the hospital?"  
"Laugh a bloody minute." Owen groaned, "they've got an outbreak of the black death."  
"Oh god." Gwen gasped and Lucy pulled a face

"Are they ok?"

"Tosh?" Jack asked but Tosh just stared at her screen, not really looking at what was on it. Jack spoke louder, almost shouting at the Japanese woman. "Tosh! How are they coping?"

"Um... Owen got the place quarantined and organised treatments for those who've been infected."

"Only consolation is it's treatable these days." Owen said. "But what happens when the next carrier comes through, Jack? Someone carrying smallpox or Ebola or something from the future we don't even know about yet, what do we do then?"

"Well it's not doing us any good standing around speculating." Jack answered

"We need to be prepared." Owen said starting to get angry "We're helpless, all we're doing here is putting sticking plasters on gaping wounds!"

"What do you suggest?" Jack asked staying calm,

"I suggest, you lead us and you tell us what the instructions are." Owen replied

"Owen..." Gwen said trying to break the argument up before it properly started

"No, come on. You're all thinking it too, even you Lucy with your never wavering trust in Jack and your precious Doctor. You're the big man here, Jack, you keep all the secrets! Well, now's the time to tell us a few and tell us how the hell we're going to get out of this. Lucy? Fancy telling us what the hell is going on here?"

Lucy kept her head done and didn't say anything,

"You want to know a secret?" Jack said, annoyed at Owen and wanting to take attention off Lucy, he may have ordered her to lie if needed but that didn't mean that he wanted her to be placed in that situation. "There is no solution. I can't fix this. Because this was never meant to happen! The first thing you learned when you joined Torchwood was 'Don't mess with the rift'. It's even Rule 1 on Lucy's list of rules. But you disobeyed those orders and now everything that is happening is down to you!"

"I only disobeyed instructions to get you back!" Owen shouted

"And now people are dying."  
"What, so I shouldn't have bothered?" Owen asked and Jack just stared at him not saying a word, Tosh and Lucy looked uncomfortable of the idea but both admitted to themselves silently that the job came with those kinds of risks and that getting back to the 21st century was not worth this. "Who the fuck are you anyway?" Owen said angrily "Jack Harkness! You don't even exist. We've looked."  
"How is his name important?" Lucy said, she didn't want to get involved in the argument between the two men and hadn't even realised she'd spoken aloud until Owen turned on her.  
"Well we all know how special you are. You know all our secrets, but where's your family? You've not even gone looking for them. You don't mention anyone important. You're just a lonely little kid who got lucky."  
"Be quiet Owen." Jack said warningly.

"Well you don't mind her knowing about you. You sit in your office the pair of you discussing stories about your precious Doctor and Rose, even though Lucy has said that Rose is a 'special snowflake' that she doesn't really like. It doesn't matter, because you can talk to _her_ but you don't dare talk to the rest of us. But the point remains, if you're not even a real person, then why the hell should I follow your orders?"

There was a moment of silence where everyone realised what Owen had just said and then Jack growled.

"Get out"

"What?" Owen was confused, as though he hadn't realised how much he had annoyed and upset Jack. Lucy couldn't help but think Jack's response was an obvious one and that Owen shouldn't be so shocked by it.

"Get out! I'm relieving you of your duty."

"No you can't do that" Tosh said

"Bollocks you are!" Owen shouted

"Jack, wait." Gwen tried but Jack just walked towards the doctor and pointed his finger at him angrily.

"You're done here" He said walked past Owen and into his office

"What so that's it?" Owen turned around to continue arguing. "The whole world is going to shit and you're going to fire me?"

"For God's sake!" Gwen shouted, "Both of you! We need to stick together on this."

"Gwen now really isn't the time." Lucy said.

"If I can't rely on you," Jack said, no longer shouting just talking calmly. "If I don't have your complete trust, you don't belong here." He looked away from Owen and at each of the rest of the team. "That goes for the rest of you. Anyone who agrees with Owen, leave now."

Owen looked over at all of them and no one was able to catch his eye, he sighed.

"So now we know how it is. So that leaves me 24 hours to savour the good times."

"What are you talking about?" Gwen asked confused,

"Think about it Gwen." Owen replied, "Nobody leaves this place intact. Sometime in the next 24 hours I get Retconned. All my memories erased. I don't know where or when, but he'll get me."

"Jack this has gone far enough." The Welshwoman turned on her boss as though she could get him to change him mind.

"Shut _up_ Gwen!" Lucy said angrily. "You are not the fucking boss, you have no say over what Jack decides to do so stop acting like you do." Owen pulled his gun out and passed it over to Lucy,

"I guess this is goodbye, I suppose you take this."  
"Yeah." She tried to smile at him, "It's the end of the world. You might get more than 24 hours."  
"Lucky me" He said sarcastically before looking at the rest of the team and also pulling out his Torchwood accreditation and throwing it onto the desk.

"Good luck with the end of the world. I would say thanks for the memories." And with that, Owen walked out of the hub and up in the lift to the ground floor, towards the Roald Dahl Plass and away from Torchwood.


	27. Chapter 27 - End of Days, Part 2

**A/N: Enjoy the second half of End of Days.**

"Ok guys," Ianto said in their ears, "Billis' shop is coming up on the left in 20m."

Gwen, Lucy and Jack were walking through Cardiff on a hunt for Billis Manger, to try and find out what he was up to. Since Jack had thrown Owen out no one had mentioned him and that casual banter and conversation that normally happened while they were working had gone. If they were not discussing anything Torchwood related they were not discussing anything at all.

Gwen noticed the shop first, and pointed it out to them. A Stitch in Time looked like an old fashioned shop that people would automatically trust due to its style and the fact that these specialist shops were only ever run by people who knew what they were doing. Jack guided the pair of them inside, where every surface was covered in a different clock and each told a different time. Lucy also noticed a coat very similar to Jack's on the coat and hat stand, it was as though Billis was mocking the Captain.

"Wow" Gwen said as she looked around "Some of this stuff must go back centuries"  
"And they all look to be in brilliant condition as well, better than they should be even if they had been looked after well."

"He scavenges antique pieces from the past, brings them here, sells them for a profit." Jack explained

"It's a clever plan." Lucy pointed out, "doesn't do anyone any harm."

"Not a bad business plan." Jack agreed

"Better than conning people and selling them space junk." Lucy said with a smirk, deciding to risk the banter as Jack seemed to have calmed down on the walk through town. "Even if the space junk is _apparently_ harmless."

"Medical space junk." Jack said with a roll of his eyes. "Harmless."

"Oh it was completely harmless, no one got hurt." Lucy replied, she cocked her head, "Are you my Mummy?"

"Even the best business plans have some problems." Jack said, he couldn't help but smile a bit at Gwen's confused face as she tried and failed to follow the conversation.

"We all have to earn a living." Billis said as he walked down the spiral staircase in the corner, the banter and amusement immediately stopped and as Lucy turned round to face the older man her hand rested on the gun on her hip.

"You're from 1941." Jack spoke calmly as the other man walked through the shop.

"As you were, hello again Captain, Agent." He nodded his head at the pair of them.

"How can you be in two time zones at once?" Gwen asked

"I can step across eras like you can walk into another room." He explained. "At first, it was the most incredible gift. Now I know the reality. It's a curse."

"Why?" The Welsh woman pressed him for answers although there was sympathy in her voice. Lucy couldn't help but roll her eyes at the 'human heart of Torchwood'.

"I can see the whole of history but I don't belong anywhere within it."

"You're not the only person who feels out of the place. Like they don't belong anywhere" Lucy couldn't help but point out. "My hero sees the world in a completely unique way and he can feel the turn of the earth as well as being able to see the web of time; events that must be, events that could be and things that can never be. Doesn't stop him trying to make the best of life and help people. Sounds like you've got it easier than him really. And I literally don't belong in this world."

Billis turned and looked at her as though he was trying to understand what she had said.

"They only feel like they don't belong, I know it. This hero of yours will have somewhere that he belongs. You look like you found your place."  
"He's got his ship, but his home was destroyed and as for me..." She shrugged. "I've found somewhere but that doesn't make me different."

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Billis spoke again, moving the conversation forward and ignoring what Lucy had said; Lucy mentally counted that as a win for her.

"So, your return to this time had a price. Time's splintering. This city exists on a rift in time. The only way to make it right is to fully open that rift."  
"No way." Jack said sternly and instantly.

"This happened because the rift was opened a tiny amount." Lucy added ,"How is opening it further going to be on any use?"

"Let it suck back what fell though"

"It's too dangerous." Jack shook his head

"Can we even do that?" Gwen asked

"Of course you can, isn't that right Captain? I wonder if you knew as well Agent?"

"Jack? Lucy?" Gwen questioned them

"You've seen what happened." Jack replied, "If we open that rift fully millions of lives will be at risk."  
"Lucy do you know anything?"

"I'm as blind as you are." Lucy lied to Gwen, grateful for the order that Jack had given her earlier.

"And yet if you don't open it, more will fall through." Billis countered Jack's argument "Lives will be lost."

Jack laughed and pulled out his gun, Lucy immediately did the same.

"You know so much you're coming with us."

"I'm sorry." Billis disappeared in an instant

"Dammit." Lucy said as she put her gun away again. "Teleportation across time, makes putting him in the cells difficult."

"Trace the temporal activity round this location." Jack ordered and Lucy knew that Tosh and Ianto would immediately get to work using the rift location system, although it wouldn't be of any use in telling them were Billis had gone. "We need to find out where he is. Come on." He ran out of the shop and Lucy followed.

"How is knowing that he apperated through time going to tell us where he is?" She caught up with her boss and Jack shrugged.

"Once we know the signal we can trace it, at least we'll know if he appears again."  
"And how will we know it's the right Billis? If he's jumping through time it could be a younger or an older one."

"It's worth a look, and you can't jump around on your own time line anyway."  
"I know that but..."

Gwen ran up from behind them but instead of slowing down when she joined them she sped up and kept going.

"Gwen?" Jack shouted but Gwen kept running, Jack and Lucy exchanged a look and quickly started to run after her.

"Oh shit." Lucy said remembering what was going on as they ran. "Rhys!"

Jack's eyes widened as he realised the implications of what Lucy had said and the pair sped up, eventually joining Gwen at the SUV. Once they jumped into the company car they had half a moment to catch their breaths before Gwen started driving towards her flat.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It took a while but they got Rhys to the hub, unconscious but alive. Jack would have been happy putting Rhys in ones of the rarely used medical recovery rooms but Gwen wanted to be absolutely certain that he was safe from Billis so decided that best place for him was in the cells. The rest of the team all exchanged looks behind Gwen's back but didn't say anything, it wasn't their place. Ianto had just finished rewrapping the bandage around her hand again as her cut from the day before reponed as she punched the wall. He hadn't been happy about discovering how she had done it but suspected as much when Gwen had told them how the last note was written – Lucy wasn't one for letting other people get hurt. Lucy could tell he wanted to say something about it but had decided to stay quiet for now and mention it when they weren't under attack. Instead he had sighed and taken out some of the bandages from the first aid kit on Owen's desk. She couldn't help but seem noticed that he seemed impresssed with how it had been dealt with and she mumbled something about Tosh making sure it was cleaned and dressed straight away.

Gwen walked back into the main area of the hub quickly as she brushed away tears, they immediately stopped their conversation on their theories about Billis' plan so they could check up on her. The theories ranged from the joking ones - maybe he was in the employ of a psychic duck who had a grudge against Rhys because he never threw him any bread when they were in the park - to the more serious ones - he was planning on using his time travel abilities to discover the weaknesses and strengths in Torchwood so he could vastly increase his chances of beating them and then he would take over the world.

"Did he wake up?" Jack asked

"Yeah," Gwen replied, "Yeah he did. Tosh can you bring up the CCTV of the vaults? Just leave it on the screen, I know it sounds crazy but..."  
"Sure. No problem." Tosh said quickly as she tapped a few buttons on her PDA which was connected to the Torchwood system, a few seconds later the picture came up on Rhys angrily pacing the cell.

"Thank you," Gwen said to Jack and Lucy. "For helping me bring him here." They both nodded at her and knew that nothing needed to be said.

"I can't understand how Billis was able to show you that vision." Tosh commented.

"It was so real, Tosh. I was in my flat. It smelt like my flat, it had all the sounds of my flat. I touched the blood." Jack walked over to Gwen who was starting to panic or go into shock. "I can still feel it on my hands. Rhys' blood."Jack grabbed her hand.

"Not going to happen." Gwen took a couple of deep breaths before nodding. Jack looked at the rest of the team, "Come on, there is still work to be done."

They nodded and just as they started to move towards their desks - Jack had told Lucy that Owen's desk was now hers and Lucy had decided that it wasn't the best time to argue with the Captain - the alarm sounded and the lights went off.

"What's going on?" Ianto asked, Tosh looked at her PDA

"We've got a security breach." She replied before going over to her desk to find out everything she could.

"Alright," Jack said staying calm, "Nobody panic." It was then Gwen realised what this potentially meant.

"RHYS!" She shouted as she ran back down the stairs towards the cell she had placed her boyfriend in only half an hour earlier. A few seconds later Lucy swore. Loudly.

"FUCK!"

"What?" Jack asked, they were following Gwen towards the cells.

"Almost all of our cells are full of weevils and other things, including some Neanderthals and a Roman Centurion, if those doors are opened..."  
"It's not good news." Jack filled in the rest of her thought.

As Jack followed Gwen to the block of cells that Rhys was in, Lucy split from them to the one they had placed the stolen people. Her heart sank as she looked through the window in the door to see the Roman was fighting with the Neanderthals. As much as she would have preferred to just shoot them all with her gun that could cause problems with time when they were returned, not only that they were dead when they shouldn't be but in the manner they were killed. Roman's trying to create something that could kill in the same way a gun could, was not a good idea. Lucy was aware that in most cases the world just worked around paradoxes like these but with the rift being so volatile and the paradox machine that the Master had set up around the TARDIS that was due to start in just under two weeks, it wasn't something she wanted to take the risk on. She sighed and removed the stun gun from her right hip. This could only go badly, but Jack had followed Gwen and judging by the scream that echoed down the corridor they had found Rhys' dead body.

She opened the door to the cell block and winced at the sound it made, any chance of her using the advantage of surprise had gone as the two Neanderthals and the soldier all turned to look at her. The only good news Lucy could think of was that the weevils hadn't joined the fray - but that was potentially because they sprayed the doors with weevil spray and put a similar smell into the air con in the cells, just in case something like this ever happened. Jack had told them that someone in the 70's had come up with the idea when five or six weevils had escaped when there was a power cut and had done a 'stupid amount of damage to the hub' before they were able to recapture them. Lucy pressed the alarm button on the inside of the door, to call for help, and took a step forward.

One step was all it took and she was involved in the fight. Lucy had never really considered how a Neanderthal would fight before and suddenly she was forced to not only consider it but make counter movements as she tried to get close enough to hit them with her stun gun and she couldn't help but wish Torchwood issued tasers as standard instead because that way she wouldn't need to get anywhere near as close. It was a mess and she knew that if it was just her she would lose in seconds, if she wasn't allowed to use any modern weapons anyway. Her only saving grace was the other fighters, as the weakest of the group the Roman left her alone and only practice at dodging punches meant she had a chance to get close enough. As she ducked under a swinging arm she made a mental note to talk to Jack about the grave oversight about their weapon choice, the police issued tasers as standard because they didn't want their people putting themselves in any undue risk. Why did Torchwood - where the risk levels were a LOT higher allow their agents to get so close when there was a perfectly good solution available?

She ducked under the swinging arms and dodged out of the way of the kicking legs as she got close enough to knock out the first Neanderthal, Lucy had quickly learned that without weapons - presumably clubs - of their own, they fought dirty. Arms swung as the four people in the cell corridor danced, trying to win the battle against their partner but not get involved in the other fight that was happening next to them. Lucy winced as something hit the base of her back, she didn't feel the repercussions as she was high on adrenaline but she knew that it wasn't good. She was aware that she was going to have to see Owen as soon as possible after this as her left arm felt a bit numb after it had been hit and she knew she was going to have a beautiful array of bruises over the coming days, ignoring the opened scar - Lucy wasn't happy about finally having to show the doctor the ugly old scarred that marred her back. As she moved towards the second Neanderthal and the Roman she wished that they would take each other out and make her job considerably easier, the second Neanderthal now looked scared as he saw what she had done to his friend and this meant the Roman turned on her.

"Fuck" Lucy said as the Roman raised his sword, Lucy prayed that her reflexes were going to be quick enough and part of her was grateful that her Dad had been 'not the best' as it meant she had learnt from an early age to trust her instincts and hone her reflexes as she jumped out of the way of things and fists that were coming towards her. Swords were a new thing though and she only just got out of the way in time. **Most** of her got out of the way in time.

The Roman had moved to launch himself, and his sword, at her but at the same time the Neanderthal had jumped him. It appeared he had decided that her techonolgy jumped her from being the weakest to the winning team. This caused the solider to lose his grip on the sword as he turned to throw the Neanderthal off his back, the sword went flying towards Lucy and she moved out of the way enough that it didn't go straight through her neck although she still felt a stab of pain and seconds later blood trickling down inside her top as it sliced the side of her neck. While the two were struggling she stepped forward and incapacitated the Roman with her stun gun, the Neanderthal jumped off the Roman and looked at her, fear obvious in his eyes. Lucy pointed the gun towards him and then back at the cell, she could feel her energy wane and was glad that the man seemed scared enough of her and technology that he would follow her orders. He went to walk back into the cell but Lucy gestured at the other one and he pulled his friend back in with him cowering away from Lucy.

Tosh ran into the cells.

"Rhys is dead and most of the other blocks weren't affected, whoever did this wanted to cause the most impact possible. What happened here? Are you ok?"  
"I'm fine." Lucy moved her plait on top of the cut and pulled up the collar of her leather jacket, she silently bemoaned the fact it was going to take forever to get the blood off it, if it was at all possible. The clean bandage that Ianto had put on less than five minutes earlier was now stained red. Trying to focus on that and not the pain in her neck or her lower back she spoke again. "Can you put him back in his cell?" She pointed at the Roman, "I'm going to go tidy up. And before you ask I have no idea how I managed it except they were mainly too focused on each other and then the last guy was too scared of me to fight. It was messy and pure damn luck."

Tosh blinked at her and nodded.

"Sure... er wow, well done."  
"Owen back yet?"  
"No, should he be?"  
"Can you imagine him sitting out the end of the world?" Lucy asked wryly. "He'll be back. Just need him to check my arm. It feels numb."

"You want Owen to check you out?" Tosh looked surprised. "You?"  
"Yes me. I've just been in a fight with two Neanderthals and a Roman solider. I may be shit scared and hate every doctor apart from The definitive article. But I'm not stupid, plus my back aches, I think an old scar might have been opened up when I got hit in the back. Plus my hand... Ianto only just redid it.. I'm fine, pretty much just cuts and I'll have some beautifl bruises." Lucy was aware that to make it sound as though she escaped with no wound would be stupid and make it obvious that she was hiding something. She refused to limp out of the cells or show the pain in any way so she straightened her back - hiding a wince - and walked out of the door, leaving Tosh to do the clean up. The second she was out of sight and down a side corridor towards one of the lesser used toilets she sagged against the wall trying not to put pressure against the old scar and limped into the loos so she could tidy herself up and see how bad the damage was.

She winced as she pulled the leather jacket off and pulled the t-shirt which was clinging to the bleeding wound. It wasn't pretty on the best of days but with all the blood it looked even worse, Lucy grabbed a tissue and tentatively tried to clean it up while turning her neck as little as possible. She bit back the cry of pain and instead grabbed one of the first aid kits that Owen had insisted were in every toilet for just-in-case situations. She was grateful for the first time that Owen was such a good doctor who cared about his patients, even if he grumbled and tormented her once a month. She stabbed herself in the leg with the strong painkiller ignoring the normal fear of needles in a desperate need for pain relief and sighing when it kicked in a couple of minutes later. Once she was in less pain she was able to tidy up the blood, she taped up her back as tightly as she could. It wasn't brilliant but she trusted in her ability to keep it tight and minimise the blood loss and get on with the job while the pain medication was working. All she could do was hope that this would be over before the medication stopped working, it was strong enough that you wouldn't notice the pain but it also only worked for a couple of hours. Owen claimed that the only reason he stocked it was because it would give them time to 'deal with whatever shitty situation was happening in the hub' before they went to see him, and if they were needing to use that strength of pain medication then needed to see him as soon as possible. She cleaned up the wound on her neck wincing as she used the antiseptic wipes, she used the largest skin coloured plaster to cover it up - and it was only just big enough. She pulled apart the newly stained bandage and ran her hand under the tap, biting her lip against the pain before she quickly tied another new bandage around it with a rough knot.

Once she was ready she put her leather jacket back on with the collar turned up, trying to hide the plaster on her neck as much as possible, you could still see there was blood on her t-shirt but it wasn't obvious just how badly she had been hurt she was grateful that the wound was on her back and that it was easy to cover. She walked back up to the main area as Jack was cleaning a wound on Gwen's hand, while Gwen stared numbly at Rhys' dead body. Ianto noticed her and gave her a small smile as she joined them in the medbay, instead of leaning against the wall she decided to sit down at the top of the steps.

"I'll have to tell his family."

"We'll deal with it." Ianto offered and Gwen scoffed and but didn't look up from her boyfriend's body

"Like you dealt with the porter the first time I met you? No you won't 'deal' with it Ianto."

Lucy wanted to say something about how they wouldn't have dealt with it in the same was as they did with the porter, that was a weevil attack and there was little else they could have done. But she was aware that this was not the time so she sent Ianto a small reassuring smile.

"Gwen." Tosh felt she had to say something, "I'm so sorry." Gwen laughed again.

"You didn't even know him, none of you did."  
"I always liked him, he was one of my favourite characters." Lucy said quietly.

"That doesn't mean you knew him." Gwen's words were harsh but Lucy expected little less.

"I'm not saying it did, I just -" she sighed, "never mind Gwen. We might not have known him personally but you told us enough things about him."

"It's what happens here." Gwen pulled her hand away from Jack. "We all end up alone." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes and caused her to look slightly mad from grief. "Not me." She turned to Jack. "No way. You bring him back."  
"No"

"The resurrection gauntlet."

"Was destroyed. We shot it to save your life." Lucy said, praying that everything would work out how it was supposed to, Owen would come back soon, they would open the rift (kill Jack), release Abbadon, and Jack would sacrifice himself to save the day. Otherwise she had no other plan. She also had no reason to suspect that it wouldn't work out like it did on TV - it had every time previously - but the stakes had never been quite as high and she couldn't help but be worried.

"We've got to have something else."  
"I said no."

"No there's something wrong with time, we can go back to the moment... " It was painful to watch Gwen go through the denial of Rhys' death.

"It would cause a paradox." Lucy pointed out but she didn't think that Gwen heard her.

"... to the very moment."  
"Gwen"

"There's got to be something you can do otherwise what's the fucking point of you?" She launched herself at Jack hitting him as hard as she could. He grabbed her hands so she wouldn't hurt herself but allowed Gwen to continue trying to hit him so she could work out some of her anger. "You bring him back. You bring him back to me. Bring him to me. Do you understand me Jack fucking Harkness?"

"I'm sorry." Jack said as Gwen stopped attacking him and just cried in his arms. "I'm so sorry."

Owen ran in, they had all missed the sound of the cog door turning.

"Oh shit." He said summing up the situation when he saw Rhys' body on the slab in his medbay.

"That sums the whole situation up quite nicely." Lucy muttered. Owen darted past her and ran down the stairs to join Gwen and Jack.

"What happened?" He asked

"You came back!" Tosh said happily, glad that her crush/love hadn't deserted them but Owen ignored her.

"Are you all right? You ok? Are you all right?" He asked Gwen as he pulled her away from Jack so he could look at her. Gwen pushed him away.

"Don't touch me." She stared at Owen for a bit before walking back to sit next to Rhys.

"How many other people have got to suffer?" Owen asked Jack seriously, and they could all hear the implication that this was Jack's fault because he refused to open the rift. "I'm going to fix this." Owen said seriously, "I'm opening the rift." He ran up the stairs, into the main hub. Ianto looked at Lucy who quickly looked away and then at Jack, a couple of seconds later he started to follow Owen up the stairs. Jack spoke as Ianto reached Lucy at the top.

"Make sure you stop him."

Ianto turned to looked at Jack, Lucy continued to look away and played with the zip on her leather jacket.

"No" Said Ianto, as he turned and walked out of the medbay.

"We're going to help him." Tosh said following the archivist, Gwen got up from her seat by Rhys and also started to go up the stairs.

"Sorry." Lucy said as she got up and walked into the main area of the hub.

"Billis was right." She heard Gwen say in a wavering voice. "He said 'open the rift and everything goes back to normal'. Owen's right, I'm gonna get Rhys back."

Owen was typing away at the computer, Gwen pushed him aside and took over.

"Enter emergency protocol one." Ianto said and Gwen started going through systematically typing in the code for the emergency protocol, it was something that had been drilled into all of them but they never thought they would ever use.

"Get away from the computer Gwen." Jack had finally gone up the stairs from the medbay and joined them, his gun was in his hands hanging by his side. Owen stepped in between them and Gwen kept typing. "This is a trap" Jack said, "All these cracks around the world, they're diversions. This is what Billis wants"

"What are you afraid of Jack?" Owen asked, his voice sounded broken and exhausted but he was going to fight.

"It needs a password." Gwen said annoyed

"Rhea Silver." Ianto supplied and Gwen typed it in, Jack brought up his gun and pointed it at her.

"I said move."

"What the hell are you doing?" Tosh asked

"Final warning." Jack supplied

Gwen slowly stepped forwards so she was right in front of Jack and the gun, Lucy slipped into position so she could press the enter key at any second.

"Come on Jack." Gwen said

"You're a united front now. Toshiko, the poor girl who'll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant? Owen, so strong, he gets in a cage with a Weevil desperate to be mauled. Ianto, hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement. Lucy here pumped bullets through her, remember? Lucy, so lost and alone, nobody wanted you in your world and we end up saddled with you because you are too dangerous to let go."

Lucy knew that Jack was saying anything and everything he could, knowing exactly where to hit them so it would hurt, but that didn't stop the stab of pain from Jack's words. She looked away from Jack and briefly caught eye contact with Ianto, but he looked away and she could see that the reminder of what she had done to Lisa and the lies she had told reflected in his eyes.

"I've got to get Rhys back." Gwen begged.

"You're so in love with Rhys you spent half your time in Owen's bed" Gwen's temper rose and Lucy didn't blame her, she was trying to keep hers under control and the only way she was capable of doing that was her knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes and how Billis was manipulating all of them. It wasn't Jack she should be angry with, in fact he had even given her permission to act in this way; although if he had known what he was allowing he might not have so easily told her to make sure that everything stayed on track.

"Fuck you!" Gwen shouted, punching Jack so hard he fell backwards. Owen grabbed Jack's gun and pointed it at the Captain.

"We're relieving you of your command, Captain!" He shouted, Lucy was suddenly glad that the rest of Torchwood knew Jack was immortal. Owen knew that no matter how hard he tried he would not be able to kill his boss, if they got themselves into a mess - which they were about too - Jack would be able to come back and save the day. The Torchwood doctor was acting through anger and hurting the one person who would be able to survive. It would be very easy for the tables to be turned on her, after all she had let this happen, she could have said something the day before and stopped them from going into Billis' trap. "We're opening that rift and getting back what we lost."

Lucy looked away from the scene in front of her and turned to the computer, she pressed enter and the system accepted the password. A new screen flashed up, 'Retina prints of all Torchwood personnel required for authorisation.'

"Shit." All of the others apart from Owen and Jack read the screen and repeated her comment.

"Stay down." Owen shouted at Jack keeping his gun trained on their boss as he pushed himself up off the floor.

"You wanna be in charge, Owen? You got to have significantly bigger balls." Jack got up, a slight mocking look on his face as though he didn't expect Owen to do anything.

Owen reacted instantly. It didn't take much, just a bit of pressure on his trigger finger and he shot the gun. The bullet went straight into Jack's forehead and the Captain collapsed, Owen shot him again and again.  
Although they all knew that Jack would come back to life and it would be ok - Gwen didn't know that they knew - they still all stared at Owen in shock.

"I'm sick of people doubting me." Owen said still angry, and using that anger to push away the shock of what he had just done. Lucy stepped forward and gently took the gun off the doctor.

"None of us doubt you Owen, it's ok. Let's just get the retina scans"

Tosh nodded numbly and took the scanner out from her desk drawer and passed it to Gwen who started using it on the team, once she was done with the others she passed it to Lucy who took hers and then looked awkwardly at Jack's dead body and took his as well. Lucy passed the scanner to Tosh and played with her plait.

"Um, before we do this..."

"What?" Owen asked her "Are you going to say it's a bad idea?"

"No, it's just there's a chance... Well I came here because I was stolen by the rift. What if opening it steals me back again? I mean I'm covered in background radiation and if the void opens or something, I dunno it could suck me back through. I mean this is the rift and not the void but..."  
"We're doing this." Gwen hissed, "I need Rhys back."  
"I'm not saying we shouldn't." Lucy said quickly pacifying the team, who were partially in shock that everything had happened so quickly. Ianto's faced paled even more than it had done when Owen shot Jack. "I just wanted to say that this has been fantastic and thank you."

"You're not going anywhere." Tosh said sternly, "It doesn't work like that."  
"How do you know?" Lucy asked, "It should send all the other displaced people home why not me?"  
"Because you're not displaced like that." Ianto said harshly. "Stop acting like this is the end. There's not need for you to say goodbye"

"Just thought I'd say..." Lucy shrugged, "just in case."

"Well don't." Ianto took the scanner from Tosh and plugged it into the computer, once it had taken in the data and confirmed that they were the retina's of Torchwood a new screen flashed up, asking for confirmation that they really wanted to open the rift and a warning that it would endanger Torchwood infrastructure. Gwen stood at the computer and looked at the rest of the team, silently asking for permission and confirming that it was the right thing to do. Her eyes landed on Rhys' body in the medbay and her mind was made up. She pressed enter.

Immediately alarms started blaring, the ground below them was shaking and the lights were flickering. They all looked around unsure of what was happening and what they should do when Jack 'woke up', he grabbed Lucy's leg as he took his first breath.

"Shitting fucking hell." Lucy said in shock as she span around, "one thing knowing, another thing actually seeing."

"Oh my god." Owen said and Lucy could see Ianto and Tosh mirroring their reaction. Even Gwen who had seen it happen before was still surprised.

"What have you done?" Jack asked

"What you ordered me to do, Captain." Lucy hissed, she was pretty sure that the others didn't hear due to the alarm and the buzzing that was now coming from the central column that would become the water fountain when it was above ground. Electricity seemed to spark off it and energy grew up the column.

"We need to get out of here." Lucy breathed to herself before realising that it was true and they really did need to get out of there as the hub was going to collapse around them. "OUT!" She shouted, helping Jack to his feet. "We need to get out of here!" Rhys' body disappeared, and they all realised the danger they were in and started ran out of the hub, bits of ceiling falling on top of them as they did so. The conference room glass walls blew open, Ianto ran round to Jack's other side and helped as they dodged falling cables, Jack got most of his strength back as they reached the stairs but he still needed some support, which they all silently decided would be safer to use then the lift. A minute later they were all safe and out of their headquarters. Lucy was glad that she was currently not feeling any pain due to the medication she had taken earlier but knew she only had about an hour left before it started to die down and she would feel the repercussions for her later actions. Lucy only noticed that Ianto had grabbed Jack's greatcoat when Jack started putting it on.

"Keep moving." Jack ordered as they took the back exit out of the hub and were running away using the back streets of the bay.

"It's alright Jack." Gwen tried to reassure him. "Everything is going to go back to normal."  
"Or not." Lucy said as they all noticed Billis standing in the street waiting for them. Gwen stepped in front of the group to speak to him but he spoke first.

"From out of the darkness, He is come."

"What is he talking about?" Gwen asked

"His lord and master." Lucy replied, "Billis was pulling all our strings but He is the reason why."

"Son of the Great Beast."  
"The Great Devourer." Lucy said, passing Jack over to Ianto and walking forward to join Gwen.

"You've heard of him?" Billis said not hiding the surprise, "Then you know that all is lost. He was cast out before time, chained in rock and imprisoned beneath the rift." Billis looked above and behind them.

"All hail, Abaddon, the Great Devourer. Come to feast on life."

Lucy pulled out her gun and shot Billis, not feeling any sympathy at all for the man as his body collapsed. Later on the shock of leaving a man to die would kick in, but right now she was just angry.

"Yeah well, you're the starter."

The team all turned round to see a giant dark figure with horns slowly walk towards them. It roared and they watched as people died the second they were touched by its shadow. It roared at them and then turned and started to walk in the other direction, straight into the centre of Cardiff

"Jack?" Gwen asked, desperate for help. "What do we do? How do we stop it? Tell me what to do."  
"Just you two," He ordered, looking at Gwen and Lucy while pulling all his strength together, "get me to an open space. The rest of you, run and stay away from its shadow."

Gwen, Lucy and Jack got into the SUV and drove to an area just outside the bay, they could still see Abaddon raging and hoped that the rest of the team were safe.

"What are you going to do?" Gwen asked Jack as they got out of the car.

"If Abaddon is the bringer of death, let's see how he does with me." Jack replied "If he feeds on life, then I'm an all-you-can-eat-buffet."

"No way." Gwen said trying to stop Jack put Lucy pulled her away. "He's too weak."  
"He's got the vortex running through him. He'll be fine, unless you've got some other genius plan that is going to stop a vengeful god/devil thing that literally brings death in its wake."  
"Get out of here." Jack ordered the two woman, "Go!"

Lucy pulled Gwen back towards the SUV.

"Drive as fast as you can." Jack shouted.

"Come ON Gwen." Lucy said, "Jack's luring him here we need to be out of his shadow, or else the world is safe but we're dead."  
"Jack." Gwen said her voice chocking with tears.  
"Bring it on!" Jack shouted at Abaddon drawing it's attention. Abaddon roared at Jack and started to walk towards him. They watched as the shadow reached Jack and instead of him falling over ,dead, energy burst between the pair, flowing from Jack to Abaddon. Jack was screaming in pain the whole time and his life force was literally dragged out of him. Abaddon didn't seem to happy about the situation either as it was stuck in the same position and was not able to escape, it started screaming in pain too as the white light became too much for it and it collapsed and disappeared. Jack fell backwards as well, the energy beam no longer keeping him upright, or alive.

Lucy and Gwen ran to Jack and knelt by his side, they felt the ripple of time distortion passing through them and Lucy presumed it was only their day-to-day closeness with the rift that led to them being unaffected. Ianto, Owen and Tosh ran over to join them, Lucy noticed they had climbed out of what looked to be a stolen car, they had obviously noticed the battle (if that is what it could be called) between Jack and Abaddon. Gwen pulled Jack's body into her and sobbed into his hair, Lucy tried to smiled at the rest of the team but found she didn't have the energy.

No one was quite sure how long they had been standing or sitting there before Owen broke the silence.

"Come on, we need to get Jack's body back to the hub"

"The hub was ruined." Gwen said lifting her head up from Jack.  
"We'll just have to remodel, but the lower levels should be fine."  
"You mean the mortuary."

None of them replied but the silence held their answer.

"We need to take him back." Ianto said echoing Owen's words, "and you should go home and check on Rhys." Gwen's head shot up

"You think?"  
"I think his body disappeared when the hub was exploding and we all felt the time ripple, when we opened the rift. It does you no harm to check. You can even take the car and meet us back at the hub."

Gwen nodded numbly, it appeared in the shock of awaking Abaddon and Jack's fight and subsequent death she hadn't allowed herself to think about Rhys and the potential for him to no longer be dead.

"I'll drive you." Tosh said as Gwen stumbled to her feet, "I'm not sure if you're safe to drive." She looked at Owen, Ianto and Lucy. "We'll see you back at the hub in at bit. Come on Gwen, you'll have to give me directions to your flat." Gwen nodded, she still didn't seem to be fully aware of her surroundings apart from the fact that Jack was dead and Rhys might not be.

The three Torchwood agents who were left all stared at each other, before they moved to pick up the dead body of their boss. The fact that he would eventually return to life did nothing to improve their spirits, in fact the fact that he had only been able to save the day because he had infinite life hit home just how badly they had screwed up earlier in opening the rift.

"Lucy?" Owen asked, she led the group and opened the boot of the SUV. It seemed disrespectful to put Jack in the boot but none of them wanted to sit next to him. Ianto grabbed one of the body bags that they kept stored in the front passenger door and nodded to Owen. The doctor agreed and they lowered the Captain to the floor so they could put him in the body bag and ease in transporting him back to what was left of the hub; it also meant that anyone they bumped into on the way would not be asking questions about why they were carrying a dead body.

"Yeah?" Lucy asked in response to the Londoner.

"It's going to be ok isn't it?"

"I don't know." Lucy replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "But Jack is Jack, it'll just take a while. He didn't 'just' die. That thing fed off him for a while before it was too much and it collapsed and died. Life moves on and we just keep going with it."

"What about all the people Abbadon killed?"  
"I don't know." Lucy replied again, "Maybe with all the time energy and paradoxes they come back to life. Abbadon did just explode and energy left him, some of them might be ok, but I have no bloody clue. I'm just coming up with theories, same as you."

"Pity you didn't know about this." Owen commented as he did the zip on the body bag up and lifted Jack into the boot. Lucy looked ready to respond annoyed but he continued before she said anything. "Not that you could change anything, I know that. But it would just be nice to know either way or to know that there was a way out of this."  
"And what if that was always going to be what happened?" She asked sarcastically as the events of the day started to sink in. "Would you have preferred to know that we all turned on Jack, that you killed him and we released a powerful would-be-god-thing onto the street of Cardiff that killed anyone who was touched by his shadow?"

"No." Owen admitted, "Knowing that would kinda suck, I guess this time maybe you're lucky in not having foreknowledge."  
"Yeah." Lucy agreed as she shut the SUV door and Ianto started to drive back to the hub. "This time I'm lucky." She smiled at the pair of them in the front seats and neither of them noticed she was lying, that or they simply didn't want to notice. Lucy was pretty certain it was the latter, neither man was stupid after all.

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: It's really weird to think we've nearly finished series 1, thank you to everyone whose reviewed so far or put this story on alert or on your favourite list it means a lot. I'll see you next week for a short episode epilogue**

**Rea**

**P.S And to answer the question I've been getting the most recently, yes I will be dealing with the Year That Never Was in a few weeks time**


	28. Chapter 28 - Post End of Days

About an hour after the events that led to the destruction of the hub, Abbadon and the death of Jack (again), the four of them stood in what was left of the hub, looking around at what was left of their workplace after they had opened the rift in time and space that it sat on. They had tidied up some of the mess that meant they had access to all the computers, the medbay, the cells and what was left of the shooting range- luckily the archives had been growing sideways since Torchwood had first started and had managed to come out of it mostly undamaged. But Ianto was still going to have to go through and check that nothing had been set off and could cause any more damage or problems in the future. The fact that he had got nowhere near properly going through it meant that it was going to be a difficult task and he would have to recruit Tosh into helping him and even then it would probably take the good part of a week.

It was only early evening, 7pm, but they were all exhausted. Torchwood days were long but there was often time for naps, things normally happened over a period of a couple of days and 'incidents' didn't occur straight after each other (they normally had a breathing period of a week or so between each one – or at least a couple of days -, this meant they time for to catch up on paperwork and work on their own personal projects), nor was it normal for them to lead a coup against Jack. It had been a tiring day, both emotionally and physically. Now it was over and they were no longer running on adrenaline the idea of going home and straight to bed was an enticing one.

"What now?" Tosh asked once then had put Jack's body into storage, when it became obvious that he wasn't going to wake up straight away. She spoke for all of them, the idea of working in Torchwood while Jack was dead seemed wrong; although they had moved against him earlier that didn't mean they didn't want him to lead the team. Lucy had learnt that Ianto, Tosh and Owen had had a quick conversation once she and Gwen had taken Jack to outside the port, and agreed to continue pretending that they hadn't previously known about Jack's immortality and to act in disbelief out of respect to their boss. One day they would tell him the truth, but not for a while, not until they had gained his trust again. They had agreed it was the least they owed him after everything he had done for them and they just hoped when he found out he would forgive them.

"We keep going." Lucy replied as she sagged into Tosh's chair, the pain meds she had given herself earlier were wearing off and her body was starting to complain loudly about how much stress she had put it through in the last few hours since 'dealing' with a couple of Neanderthals and the Roman soldier, on top of the pain from the injuries she had gained during that fight and her hand which she had sliced open in WWII. Not being able to feel pain didn't mean she couldn't get hurt it just meant she wasn't aware of how badly she was hurt, and when she should stop and take stock of everything. It was why Owen only kept a low dose in the medkits, not being able to feel pain was dangerous. Now she was becoming aware of it she realised how much she had pushed herself. They all looked at each other and acknowledged their exhaustion from the last 14 hours. They were glad that they had stopped the end of the world and the splintering of time but the temporary loss of Jack for longer than normal was impacting on them. It dampened their sense of success.

"You were going to see Owen." Tosh said suddenly looking up at Lucy. "The Neanderthals, Roman soldier and an old scar..." She continued prompting Lucy who shuffled awkwardly in her stolen seat.

"Yeah..." She breathed pulling on her plait like she often did when she was uncomfortable. Unfortunately this caused her to visibly wince in pain as it pulled on her neck as well, she had almost forgotten about her wounds earlier while the medication was doing its job, as it stopped working that was becoming near impossible to do. The tiredness immediately disappeared from Owen and Ianto's eyes. Ianto's were replaced with worry and the former became completely professional. Even Gwen looked slightly worried, Tosh was less so because Lucy had mentioned it earlier.

"Ok, everyone apart from Lucy - piss off. It's been a damn long day - couple of days - and emotional as well. As your doctor I'm prescribing you an early night and bed rest. If the world wants to end tomorrow UNIT can earn their wages and deal with it, just get in when you wake up. Turn the alarm clock off and sleep." Everyone just stared at him. "Go on, shoo." He gestured at all of them. "Lucy - medbay now."

Gwen quickly gave her goodbyes and rushed out of the door to see Rhys again. Tosh gave Lucy a slight apologetic look before following Gwen out of the hub, Ianto looked as though he was going to argue with Owen but the doctor spoke first.

"Tea-boy, I know you live together and you're worried about her but for God's sake she can go home without you. You know you can't do anything while I'm sorting her out cause the hub is in pieces. Just got home, I'll even make sure she's back before curfew."

"Just go Ianto." Lucy said silently pleading with him from where she hadn't moved in Tosh's chair.

Ianto didn't look happy about it but he grabbed his coat.

"I'll cook some food or something." He offered as a compromise and for the first time Lucy realised how hungry she was having survived on snacks and left over pizza all day and pretty much nothing the day before.

"I won't want much, after the day we've had I just want to go to bed."  
"You need to eat something." Owen said guardedly

"I know, I know." She said trying to waved it off and causing another stab of pain in her back and neck, she knew both men had noticed the involuntary response although she had been able to bite her tongue and not make a sound.

"Ianto, go order pizza or something. Just get out of the hub." Owen ordered. "I'll get Lucy back to you as soon as I can and give you a list of the do's and don'ts she'll need with whatever pain med I end up putting her on. But for now I need her down in what's left of my medbay so I can determine exactly what the hell is wrong with our stubborn universe hopper as well as why she didn't bring it up at the earliest possible moment and waited till now to let us know. Even though it was Tosh who said something and not her."  
"I would have said something." Lucy moaned quietly trying to stay as still as possible. "Meds from the first aid kit are running out. Ianto please go home."

Ianto nodded and finally left the hub, the second he knew that he couldn't be heard Owen turned to Lucy his arms folded in front of him looking unimpressed.

"Those the pain meds that are to be used in emergencies until you are able to get proper help? Those ones?"

"Yeah" Lucy said dragging the word out. The next bit was said quietly and Owen wasn't sure he'd heard properly. "Can we do it here? I don't think I can get to the med bay, and I'll need your help to get my jacket off. Moving hurts."

He blinked in surprise before nodding and gently pulled the zip down.

"Where are you hurt."  
"Left side of my neck and my back opened up again."

He pulled her right arm out first so he could more carefully remove her left and cause the smallest amount of pain possible.

"Bloody hell." He said seeing how much blood was on her t-shirt. The back was completely stained as was the left side where it had dripped down her neck. "What happened?"  
"We don't have any tasers." Lucy said wryly as Owen peeled off her leather jacket. "Which meant I couldn't deal with the Roman or Neanderthals in the same safe way the police did. Stun Guns are great but you need to get close first."

Owen went over to the medbay and after pushing debris out of the way and grabbed his on-the-go medic kit, which held stronger painkillers as well as anything he might need.

"Scale of 1-10" He called as he collected everything and came back.

"8" Lucy replied "But the stuff from earlier hasn't completely warn off yet. I did try and clean the wounds with the antiseptic earlier, so they shouldn't be too bad."  
"Lucy I don't know how to tell you this but Roman blades are not known for their cleanliness" He knelt down in front of her and stabbed some more pain killers into her leg, the same stuff as earlier but a higher dosage so it would last longer. "I'm going to need to pull that bandage off and have a proper look. I'll deal with the neck first because that's more likely to be infected, ok?"  
He phrased it as a question but Lucy knew it wasn't one and let him move her plait so it was no longer hanging over her shoulder, it felt awkward and out of place but she knew better than to say anything. Owen did his best to remove the plaster as gently as possible but it was always going to still cause her some pain.

"Hmmm, it's a cleanish cut and you are damn lucky Lucy - the chances of you dying look as though they were pretty damn high."  
"The Roman lost his sword when the Neanderthal jumped on his back." Lucy said, "He didn't mean to throw it at me, or at least it knocked him off balance so I was able to jump out of the way - mostly."

"Well..." He started to wipe at it, causing it to bleed again. "It'll leave a scar almost certainly and you managed to get rid of most of the infection, there's just a bit at the side that's not good. It's going to be at least eight or nine stitches, and a fair bit of pain meds while it's healing. I'd issue you bed rest as well but I know you won't keep to it, but you are not going onto the shooting range for at least a couple of weeks."  
"Fine." Lucy grumbled, "But in a life or death situation I'm going against all your orders and fighting."  
"You are _not_ going onto the field, you can stay here and look after the hub."

Lucy thought about how come election day - a week away at this point - all of Torchwood Cardiff should be in the Himalayas, maybe this was a blessing in disguise. if she wasn't medically cleared to go out into the field she could stay in Cardiff and help Jack, Martha and Doctor in any way possible.

"Sure." She said, not wanting to sound happy about the doctor's orders because that would make it obvious that she was planning for something.

"I'll start stitching it up when the meds have kicked in, now your back?"

Lucy knew that she couldn't keep it hidden any longer and was amazed that Owen had let her keep it hidden so long. She'd been in Torchwood for just short of a year and he still hadn't pressed her to let him see it. He had taken her word for it that it wouldn't interfere with her job on the promise that he could examine it the second it did so; she wasn't sure if that made him a good or a bad doctor but it made him a good friend.

"You may as well cut my top," She said with a sigh, "It's so stained I'm not sure I'll ever get it properly clean, plus there is no other way for me to take it off." Owen started rummaging through Tosh's desk and found a pair of scissors

"You sure?" Lucy just nodded and Owen gently started cutting away at the fabric so he could get access to her back but still allowed her to keep her dignity. "It's bound pretty well," He commented, "nice and tight"

"Just get on with it Owen." Lucy said and Owen deftly undid the binding and hissed at the sight. Lucy kept staring at the wall in front of her, her voice losing all emotion as she spoke. "I know it's ugly, so don't bother mentioning it."

The scar in question had come from 7 years ago, Becky wasn't even a year old and had been crying in her room. Lucy had been on her way to check up on her sister and calm her down when their dad had started shouting from downstairs. She knew better than to ignore him so quickly picked her sister out of her cot and started running downstairs as quickly as she dared, unfortunately Becky was still crying and he came out of the lounge and threw one of his beer bottles at her. Lucy had dodged but this meant her slipping on the last step and as she was unable to put her hands in front to protect herself she allowed herself to fall backwards but had landed on another bottle which smashed under her weight. Going to hospital to get it dealt with was not something that was possible, she couldn't risk anyone finding out about her home situation or leave Becky at home. So she dealt with it herself, calming Becky down in the bathroom while she took as many pain killers as she could, removed the glass gently and cleaned it using the mirror before finally binding it as tightly as possible and continuing to clean it and bind it every day for a couple of weeks. She was proud of the job she had done but it would have needed stitches to heal nicely and as that was something she wasn't able to do she had been left with an ugly visible scar.

"Whoever dealt with this the first time didn't do a great job." Owen said as he cleaned it and started mentally working out how many stitches it would need.

"I think I did a pretty good job considering I'm not a doctor."

"You didn't go to A&amp;E?" Owen asked shocked, as he looked up at Lucy's face and not her back.

"No." She replied, keeping her voice even and still without any emotion, she just wanted this humiliation to be over.

"Then I take it all back, that's a damn good job. It's going to be at least 10 stitches but I'm not going to be able to anything about the scarring. It's too old, the only good news is the new scars won't be very visible."  
"Great!" She said sarcastically, "The good news is the ugly thing won't look any worse."

Owen decided to wisely not say anything and got on with his job, once he was certain that the medication he had given to Lucy was working he started neatly sewing both wounds.

About half an hour later he was done, Lucy had a plaster/bandage on her neck and her back was tightly bound. Owen had also grabbed a small supply of tablets.

"I don't have enough and was going to order more anyway, these will keep you going for a couple of days and the new stock should have come in by then." He said putting them in his pocket. "Come on, I'll give you a lift home and let Ianto know what you can and can't do, he's more likely to make sure you actually listen."

Lucy pulled a face but pulled her leather jacket back on and followed Owen out of the hub.

"What the hell did you do Lucy?" Ianto asked as they walked into the flat and saw the plaster on her neck.

"She got too close to the Roman soldier's filthy sword." Owen replied as Lucy went into her room to get changed, ignoring the pair of them. "She managed to clean it fairly well but there was still a small infection. She's got heavy bruising on her ribs and arms but is mostly ok." He pulled out the medication bottle and passed it over to the Welshman. "She needs to take one of these every 5 and a half hours, that means that the next one should kick in before the first one dies. Try and keep her as still as possible, she can do work on the sofa but as much rest as possible."

"I can still work Owen." Lucy said coming back out into the lounge in clean clothes that were lacking in any blood stain, her t-shirt that announced she was going to take over the world.

"You can work on the database and paperwork, but I'm not having you go anywhere near the field or shooting range and that's your speciality."

"You've got to let me keep a gun on me, just in case." Ianto's eyes narrowed.

"Has this got anything to do with election day next week?"

Lucy shrugged and Owen glared at her.

"Don't shrug. It could mess with my stitches."

"Well then you're screwed Lucy, that's almost your second language." Ianto said smirking.  
"Piss off Ianto." Lucy replied, "And I just don't think it's wise for me to not have gun. We don't know what's going to happen just that Cardiff can be dangerous."  
"Ok you don't want to tell us that's fine. But I need you to promise that if I let you have a gun you won't use it unless it life or death."  
"Deal, any other restrictions?"  
"Normally I'd tell you not to drink, but as you don't that's not going to be an issue." Lucy was grateful that Ianto hadn't told anyone how she had acted on Becky's birthday, she knew that Owen would never have let her live it down. "I do however mean it about getting as much rest as possible, Lucy. I'll check you over every couple of days to make sure it's healing nicely but it will scar."  
"I know." She would have shrugged but remembered his comment and glare earlier. "_Thank_ you Owen."  
"No problem. Until I'm retconned I'm still your doctor and I'm a damn good doctor."  
"Yeah." Lucy agreed, "You are, although maybe you should work on the bedside manner."  
"Dead bodies don't tend to care about little things like that, dead alien bodies even less so."

"I ordered pizza, do you want to stay?" Ianto offered before Lucy could say anything else, Owen and Lucy could have a whole conversation full of insults.

"No thanks tea-boy. That would be too weird." Ianto nodded, slightly relieved that Owen didn't take him up on his offer and saw the doctor to the door.

"Thanks Owen."  
"It's my job." Owen said shrugging off the thanks, "I'll see you at work tomorrow, after a good night's sleep."

"Bye." Ianto said shutting the door behind him. He turned back to Lucy. "You didn't think to mention that in your fight in the cells you had been hit?"  
"You thought I got away scott free?" Lucy asked sarcastically as she settled on the sofa. "Your trust in my abilities is flattering."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy couldn't believe the nerve of Gwen to suggest she was the only person who cared that Jack was dead and after 3 days, she was ready to argue it. But not over Jack's body, so she walked down to where Gwen was sitting holding Jack's hand talking to him and telling him to wake up.

"Can I have a word Gwen?" Gwen looked up and nodded but didn't move. "Not here."

"I don't want to leave him; you don't understand" Gwen tried to complain but Lucy just looked at her. "I don't want him to wake up alone"

"No, of course I don't understand Gwen. I mean it's not like I've not lost everything is it? I trust in Jack and I trust in my knowledge that he will wake up again. But he did just explode a creature with the amount of life force he had, so it will take some time. Come on, I doubt he wants to hear this."

Begrudgingly Gwen got up from her seat and walked with Lucy into the corridor and Lucy held back no punches.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What do you mean?" Gwen was confused but angry with whatever it was Lucy was going to say.

"Do you really think you're the only person who cares about Jack? The only person who deserves to be down here sitting with him?"

"But..." Lucy didn't let her say anything but continued.

"He rescued every single person in Torchwood, every single person in the hub he handpicked, apart from you and me. As one of the 1% Retcon doesn't work on, you had to join, and you've done a good job I'm not saying you haven't. But, he rescued the others from broken lives, chose them because he knew they had what he wanted. And he makes them better; he takes all the little broken pieces and is putting them back together. And you don't get that because you were never broken."

"Wait a second I'm Torchwood I've seen things, that you didn't you didn't see - the cannibals."

"Oh yeah, I wonder why..." Lucy pretended to think before saying "hang on I remember because I didn't trust myself not to ruin things, kill them all and inadvertently end up killing one of you by fucking with the timelines. Because they scared me. I knew that five people would be safe. The way you are broken is because of Torchwood, none of us had a choice. It's not the same."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you need to get off your high horse and see that boyfriend of yours, the one for whom you just risked all of time and space for. The one you also cheated on with Owen, and even then, you still wanted Jack. He's not the fairy tale prince you think he is, you need to grow up and stop thinking that the world is black and white and Jack's white. The world is grey and Jack does dark things for good reasons, but still dark things. We do what's needed and not necessarily what is right." She let Gwen digest what she was saying before continuing.

"You don't deserve to be here. Tosh deserves to be here, Owen deserves to be here, _Ianto_ deserves to be here. He's been through more than you will ever know or understand and yet you just shove him aside, while Jack slowly puts him back together."

Gwen sneered.

"You're beloved Ianto kept his CYBER-girlfriend in the basement, which almost killed Owen and me. And you killed her, and the other girl. The innocent pizza delivery girl whose body you put a bullet into." Gwen knew she had crossed a line but she was angry.

"Annie and Lise were already dead. But that's just it Gwen. You could never understand why he did that. Canary Warf to you is just a story, a sad accident. But to Ianto it's all his friends, it's the people he worked with, the people he bumped into in the corridor and joked with in the canteen. He went through all of that and still wanted to stay in Torchwood. He could have left after you all found out about Lisa but he stayed to try to make the world a better and safer place for people who don't know any different. Why are you a better person than him? Why do you have the right to sit by Jack's side when he doesn't?"

"Because Jack told me he was immortal!" Gwen finally shouted, determined that Lucy couldn't beat that; Lucy laughed.

"You think we didn't know? You think you could work here and not know? There's another difference again, they all knew, they all worked it out but out of respect for Jack never said anything because he wanted to pretend to be normal. And it's not like I didn't know, I saw it happen, I know what Jack was like when he was mortal and saw him die the first time. But the rest of them didn't need to be told, but never said anything. They trusted Jack and he trusted them, he must have guessed that they knew something, his records in Torchwood date back to pre-WWI. So why don't you piss off back to Rhys and leave us alone."

"Owen was right when he said it before." Gwen retorted "If I've forced my way onto the team, then so have you. You don't even belong in this universe and the only reason you're here is because in your own, you have no life and no friends and therefore you spend all your time watching a TV show because that's the best your life could be. You're part of the team because you were a loser in your own world and Jack doesn't trust you in this one with all the knowledge you have. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Tosh had watched Lucy get steadily angrier and angrier during the past five days and so when she finally stormed downstairs, to 'talk' with Gwen she pulled it up on the CCTV and called Owen and Ianto over.

"Guys, Lucy is going to shout at Gwen, you might want to see this."

"Brilliant," Owen said, "They've not had a proper argument for a while."

"Lucy's been seething about her most of the week." Ianto added, "I've heard her ranting when she thinks I can't hear, and she doesn't repeat her insults often either."

They watched the argument with growing amusement as Lucy ripped into Gwen and staunchly defended Ianto. It was only at the comment about the 'other girl' that they made a sound. Owen and Tosh took a sharp breath and Ianto spoke.

"What does she mean?" He asked and said it in such a way that Tosh felt she had to reply.

"Lucy didn't kill the cyber-body of Lisa. She transplanted her brain into the body of a delivery girl so you could be 'upgraded' together. It was her Lucy shot, she hid the body as she didn't want you to ever find out, said she didn't want you to break anymore than you already had." She winced waiting for the come back, but Ianto only nodded and then walked away down the stairs towards where Lucy and Gwen where shouting at each other.

"Go home Gwen," He said in a forced calm voice having heard the last comment about why Lucy was part of the team. "Go home to your normal boyfriend and normal life. If you don't trust us then you can't work with us. Lucy said some harsh things but she was right about something you've not been broken. Try and stay that way. Come back tomorrow once you've had some sleep." Gwen looked at Ianto and decided not to push her luck so instead of turning around and going to sit with Jack again, she walked past them.

Lucy looked at Ianto and nodded at Jack.

"He's all yours." But he didn't move.

"Why are you so determined to get me with Jack?"

"Because he'll be able to fix you," She replied shyly calming down instantly from the argument and looking at the floor. "He'll make you happy" She looked up and stared straight into his eyes, "you deserve the universe Ianto, and yet you stay in Cardiff, in a job which will probably kill you before you're 30. Why else would you stay?"

Ianto smiled at her, as though he had only just realised something of vital importance.

"What if I don't want the universe?" And he leant down and kissed her, she very quickly got over the shock and kissed him back wrapping her arms around his neck. He continued to hold her close and whispered in her ear, "He may be able to fix me, but you have the ability to break me and you won't."

"I'd never break you Ianto, not if I had a choice" she replied and then gave a small grin "And god that was so cheesy I think I could kill someone with lactose intolerance." Ianto laughed and kissed her again.

She blushed and he smiled at her.

"Come on. Tosh and Owen will be watching, let's just go home. I trust you know that Jack's going to wake up. You've already sat by Becky's side for weeks, you don't need to put yourself through it again."

She nodded and grasped his hand tightly not wanting to let it go, now she had found him. She was sure that when Jack woke up she'd have to give Ianto back but for now, she could pretend that he was hers forever.

Owen and Tosh wolf whistled at them when they walked up the stairs.

"Good going tea-boy" their medic taunted. "I mean girls and guys who already share a house are totally capable of being friends." Tosh elbowed him slightly and looked at Lucy whose eyes were sparkling with hope.

"Finally," She laughed. "we had a bet going when you two would get together and as I won Owen's paying for the drinks next time." She turned serious though when she spoke again. "You told Gwen we were all broken, how much do you... I mean we never asked."

"Too much" Lucy said sadly, her happy mood instantly dropping as she thought about what she knew and how Jack had brought these people into the team "God. It's too much most of the time and it hurts to see you when things... well, I know more than you want me to know, I know the reason you joined Torchwood, what happened in the lead up to Jack offering you a job" She sighed. "But I will never tell, Tosh, I swear. And I know my history is secret but I've never... I've been hiding or keeping secrets forever. I know what it's like to have a secret you don't want others to know and the dread that fills you when someone finds out. No one will find out through me, I promise. And in case you want to see it – to know what I do, I can show you that bit of the relevant episode, with Jack's permission. You've got to believe me. I'm not going to tell." She pleaded. Tosh just nodded, she had known that Lucy would never tell but it was good to actually hear it.

"I've spoiled the mood" The Japanese woman tried to make joke of it and although it failed everyone played along. "You two go home," she gestured at the new Torchwood couple, "Owen and I will stay here, I'll go check on the boss, now that seat is finally free."

"Good argument tea-girl" Owen said, "We were watching it, it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow."

"Tomorrow is another day, I will apologise for being so harsh but I still maintain I was right. She never had the right to be the only person to sit at Jack's side. And won't while she's still whole, and if she's not then it's too late."

"I'll come in early tomorrow, you two can have a lie in." Tosh said kindly, causing Owen to look at them suggestively and jokingly.

"Make use of that extra time in bed." He laughed.

"I'm glad you agree they need it." Tosh said quickly, knowing how much a comment like that would have affected that pair of them although they would never show it. "You can join me on the early shift."

"Oh great - thanks" Owen wasn't happy but he knew he was overdue an early morning so didn't say anything else

Ianto decided that they should take Tosh's advice and go home, so he grabbed her coat off the back of her chair. "We'll see you tomorrow Owen, and then once we've emptied your pockets of money for betting on us. We'll work out what to do."

"Not so bad." Owen called after them, "Lucy doesn't drink." They laughed and walked out of the hub with Ianto's arm around Lucy letting the cog door close behind them.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

As they got closer and closer to their house Lucy started to get worried, Ianto noticed it and stopped before he opened the door.

"Lucy what's wrong?"

"What happens now?" She asked, and Ianto immediately understood.

"Now we have a nice dinner, I kiss you goodnight and you go to bed. Let's take this slowly, I know we already live together but that doesn't mean anything." He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. "I'll even cook."

She leant up and kissed him again.

"Sounds perfect,"

Lucy felt uncomfortable after they'd finished eating dinner on the sofa. Normally they would have eaten at the kitchen table, but neither of them could be bothered. The problem was that usually in this situation she would have automatically curled into Ianto's side without even thinking but now they were a couple, or nearly a couple she wasn't sure what to do. Ianto - it seemed - had no such worries, he put his plate down and pulled Lucy into him being careful of her wounds.

"You do realise that when I kissed you earlier and said I didn't want the universe, that meant I was asking if you'd be my girlfriend?" He said slightly sarcastically but making sure she knew he was being serious as well.

"Well, I guessed so but..." She trailed off not sure what to say

"Nothing needs to change between us Lu." He continued, "We act like we always acted only now I'm allowed to kiss you. And that includes the arguments as well, ok?"

Lucy nodded and snuggled more into him, making herself comfortable as her new boyfriend channel surfed and ended up on QI.

Ianto could see that Lucy was exhausted; she was laying on the sofa with her head resting on his lap, her eyes kept drifting shut and she was forcing herself to open them again. Each time her eyes shut they stayed closed for longer, he tried to work out why she was so against going to sleep as he started playing with the strands of hair that had fallen out of her plait.

"You can go to sleep you know."

"Comfy, though." She said quietly before moving as though to sit up. "You are right, I _should_ go to bed."

"You can stay here for a bit longer." Ianto replied gently pushing her down, knowing she was too tired to argue properly, he was enjoying spending time with her like this. Even though they often spent their spare time together anyway this was different, the emotions that they had both been keep secret or ignoring were out in the open, it felt more relaxed and more special.

"I should really go." Lucy said quietly but firmly "We've got work in the morning."

"We've _always_ got work in the morning," Ianto joked, "I was planning on watch another couple of episodes and then go to bed, I'll wake you up then?"

Lucy thought about it, a large chunk of her brain was screaming at her to move to her own bed, but it was quieter than normal due to tiredness, she was dosed up on strong pain medication and she too was enjoying spending this time with her new boyfriend.

"In an hour?" She checked, surely an hour would be ok.

"In an hour" Ianto agreed, "we may have a bit of a lie in but I'd like to actually get more sleep instead of staying up later."

"Hmm," Lucy agreed getting comfortable again on his lap and letting his hands start running through her hair again. "Hang on" She quickly pulled the hair-tie out of the end of her plait and Ianto started undoing it with a wry smile.

"I've never seen your hair loose before" He commented.

"Got to be some boyfriend privileges." Lucy said sleepily, "I think it's just you, my ex, Becky and my parents." Her eyes drifted shut again although they opened again at the sound of the klaxon on the TV.

"Well I'm honoured" Ianto said with a slight laugh although he was serious, he hadn't realised how small the number of people to see Lucy without her signature hair style was.

"Should be, you, Becky and maybe Mum are the only people on that list that I don't hate."

Ianto knew that the only reason he was being told this was because Lucy was too tired to think about what she was saying but that it was also because she trusted him enough to get to this state and not hide herself away like she had done previously. He was very aware that, although she was sociable and enjoyed talking to others, Lucy was also a very private person. For Lucy to let down the automatic barrier about her feelings and her family meant a lot to him.

He continued to watch another episode of QI, turning the volume down so it wouldn't wake up his sleeping girlfriend. Ianto smiled at the idea that Lucy really was his girlfriend, he was careful not to touch the bandage on her neck and her back, where he knew she was going to be scarred from her fight in the cells with the Roman 3 days ago. He was angry with himself for letting her deal with the situation without any help, as well as being annoyed at her for not telling anyone until a couple of hours later and the pain medication was dying.

He hadn't noticed that Lucy was fidgeting in her sleep until she suddenly wasn't. He had been absent-mindedly moving his hands through her hair, until it had reached the point where you wouldn't have known that it was always kept in a plait. QI had ended and he was going to shake Lucy awake, like he had promised when she suddenly became as stiff as a board, he was worried but also aware that you didn't work for Torchwood without ending up with an ample supply of memories that easily became nightmares.

What worried him was a couple of seconds later she started shaking and as he touched her shoulder to try and wake her up she flinched away from the contact. That combined with the fact that he only knew she was crying because his leg was starting to get wet, was not a good sign. At some point in her life Lucy had learnt to keep any nightmare silent and to flinch away from any contact, he was reminded of her saying that her dad "wasn't the best". He had tried to put the memories of Lucy's drunken escapade to the back of his mind and had hoped that the alcohol had made her exaggerate what had happened. Now he was forcibly reminded and realised Lucy had potentially downplayed it.

He wasn't sure how to help Lucy, he had never had to wake someone else from a nightmare before, Lisa hadn't been a field agent so they had both been lucky until that day. When he had nightmares he would normally get a mug of coffee, read a book for an hour or so before attempting to sleep again. He knew that normally you should let them wake themselves up or try and bring them out of the nightmares slowly by reminding them that are safe, so he tried the second option.

"Lu, Lucy... you're fine, we're back at our flat on the sofa."

"No" Lucy moaned quietly "stay away from her"

"Lucy you need to wake up"

Lucy pulled herself into a ball, as though she was trying to protect herself from the world and all its dangers. Unfortunately at the same time she screamed, silently, and woke herself up. This caused her to roll and push herself away from Ianto and off the sofa. She was lucky that she didn't hit her head, or neck, as she landed on her right side, although her back flared in pain.

"No" Lucy gasped as she opened her eyes to see Ianto looking at her, concern obvious in his eyes. "I can't..." She stood up and ran across the hallway and into her room before Ianto had any time to realise properly what had happened.

She collapsed on the bed and sobbed, trying to get the images from her nightmare out of her mind as well as the look in Ianto's eyes. Lucy hated pity more than anything, and to see it coming from Ianto hurt more than she thought it would. She was able to ignore most of the physical pain coming from her back by focusing on the emotional one and her worry about what would happen now.

"Lucy" Ianto called through the door, "let me in"

"Go away" She moaned back

"I'm not going to do that." He replied calmly, "I just want to check if you're ok."  
"I'm fine." The images were refusing to disappear, it was like she was back in the nightmare except this time she knew she was awake and worse - Ianto knew about it.

"There's nothing wrong with having a nightmare." He said calmly "We all have them, I don't know anyone who works at Torchwood who doesn't have them. Even people like me who only work in the archives, they aren't regular but the happen, it's a downside of the job. Nothing to be ashamed of, it means you've done your job well because these creatures that scare you aren't out there scaring others."

"Like I said, it's nothing I'm fine." Lucy repeated, failing to persuade both of them that this was true. Although she was grateful for Ianto's voice trying to calm her down and tell her that the nightmares were normal; she knew that was not the case, this was not because of Torchwood. She hadn't been able to forget the image of Becky begging her to open the rift and come home, constant dreams of her sister saying that she didn't love her enough to come back to her had simply added to her wealth of bad memories that caused her nights to be interupted.

"You didn't look fine. Just open the door a bit for me. I'm not going to ask any questions about what it was about."

Lucy got up off the bed and walked towards the door.

"No questions?" She asked letting her worry seep into her voice.

"No questions." He agreed, "Just open the door for me and let me give my wonderful girlfriend a hug."

Lucy opened the door a fraction, not sure what to expect. She looked at him and he smiled at her, his eyes showing only worry.

"Let me in?" Ianto asked quietly, knowing that this was an important moment for Lucy, she had to accept his help freely. He was only just realising how badly Lucy hated asking for help in any situation outside of work. She stared at him and he could see the conflict in her eyes, Ianto was not a fan of not knowing the answer to things and right now he had no idea what to do.

"Lu?" He said, keeping his voice soft and quiet. He saw the determination in her face and eyes before he knew what she was going to do, it could have been determination to push him away again or to be brave and let him in. When she opened the door slightly wider Ianto had to hold back the smile that wanted to spread across his face from ear to ear, Lucy was trusting him. This wasn't just letting him see her with her hair down, talking while drunk or mumbling things on the sofa while half asleep, this was her making a conscious decision to let him help her. He pushed on the door and Lucy let it swing open, they stood there looking at each other for a few seconds before Ianto took a step forward and walked into her room.

Ianto had only been in Lucy's room a handful of times since it had become hers, she had photos of the team on the side as well as a few photos of her and Becky, he smiled to see the 'Torchwood' and 'Doctor Who' posters on the wall. Lucy's clothes were on the floor along with stacks of books, it was a messy sort of organised and reflected the kind of person she was - too disorganised to care about keeping the room tidy but still able to make sure there was an order or a pattern to how the books were arranged.

Lucy still looked unsure but not quite as uncomfortable as she did earlier, he could see she was still slightly shaking although she was trying to hide it. Ianto opened his arms to give her a hug and after a couple of seconds of thought she flew into his arms, he closed them around her holding her as tightly as he dared, without hurting her, as she sobbed into his chest. He gently directed them to her bed where she curled even closer against him. Ianto wasn't sure what to say but knew he had to say something, he was also aware of his promise to not ask any questions.

"It's going to be ok. Jack will wake up, we'll tidy up the hub and everything will go back to normal."

"Can you..." Lucy said lifting her head slightly, "can you just talk about anything? I'll be ok in a bit, just need a distraction."

"No problem. Are you ok? I know I said no questions but I just want to check."

"I'll be fine." Lucy replied with a small smile before putting her head back down on his lap. "Now talk to me Welsh man."

"You know if you just wanted to hear my accent you could have asked, no need for all this drama" He smirked, trying to lighten the mood. Lucy smiled at him, and although it wasn't much he counted it as a success. As he thought (hoped) the reason for her nightmare was about Torchwood (and that what he thought he knew about her father was an exaggeration), he decided to stay away from the subject and spoke instead about his sister Rhiannon and her family.

Lucy knew that Ianto wasn't doing it on purpose, that he thought he was avoiding the subject of her nightmare, except he wasn't. Thoughts of home were filling her mind, the 'not-great' dad, shouting matches, bruises, Becky crying, Becky lying in the hospital with someone from the social sitting next to her, Becky's rift hologram begging her to open the rift and come home. Not being good enough. Never being good enough.

She forced herself to calm down and listen to Ianto's voice and not what he was saying, after a while she felt alright again and pushed herself out of the hug. Ianto smiled down at her gently and kissed her forehead.  
"Ok now?"

"That's a question." She said quietly

"Bugger. And I can't rephrase that so it's not a question either, sorry." He said not looking or sounding the least bit apologetic  
"It's fine." She shrugged smiling at him before looking back down at the bed and playing with the ends of her hair, "I'm fine. You should go to bed, I'll just read a book or something."

"I can stay here for longer if you need me to."

"I can look after myself Ianto." She said slightly louder, "I've been doing it for long enough, and as you said; It's the downside of the job. It's not my first nightmare - you just happened to be there."

"As long as it wasn't about getting together with me. I wouldn't want to think that having me as a boyfriend is that bad an idea." He joked, still not moving off the bed

"Don't be stupid. It's not a you thing, it's a job thing, it's a life thing." Lucy still didn't look up and started plaiting strands of hair in an effort to keep her hands busy  
"Oh god, we've only been going out a few hours and already I'm getting the 'it's not you it's me' line." Ianto said dramatically, grabbing her hands and pulling them towards his heart. "Don't leave me my love, you are my heart, my one true desire, the Romeo to my Juliet.

"You're an idiot" Lucy said with a small giggle.

"I know, but I'm your idiot." He replied, glad that Lucy was laughing and his overacting had done what he wanted it too.

"You also called yourself Juliet."

"I didn't think you'd like that particular role. And you are more likely to be the dashing hero what with all your guns."

"Don't need guns to be a hero." Lucy shrugged, "Although you are right, I would be a rubbish Juliet. The whole play happens in three days and they all die, it's just stupid. Love's labour's won, now _**there's**_ a play. Although the opening of a vortex into the lost dimension at the end is annoying."  
"One day, you'll have to explain all these stories to me." Ianto said seriously, "When there is no risk of destroying the space-time continuum, of course."

"When this is all over and I stop knowing what's about to happen." Lucy agreed "And that's not happened yet, or at least it's happened for Shakespeare but I don't think it's happened for Martha and the Doctor. She's not even met the Doctor yet, that happens tomorrow."  
"The woes of a time traveller, mixing up tenses, telling anecdotes before they happen..."

"You know no one at Torchwood would believe me if I said you acted like this at home, and if Owen were to see it I think he might have a heart attack."

"Like what?"  
"Like a normal 24 year old. Not the ever present archivist/tea-boy with a dry sense of humour."

"Well I'm the only person who can see you without the plait, you're the only person who can see me like this. Now I'm going to ask another question, so be ready." Lucy nodded, "Are you sure your ok and that you want me to go? I can camp out on the floor if you like. That looked like one hell of a nightmare and you were crying, silently."

Lucy stiffened briefly before forcing herself to relax.

"I'm fine Ianto. Go to bed, I'll see you tomorrow."

"If you're sure." He said standing up

"I'm sure." She pointed at the door, "Now go, shoo, vamoose."

Ianto was surprised to be woken up the next morning by a text from Tosh.

_'Just got in, Lucy is already here and sitting by Jack with a laptop and paperwork all over the floor.' _He sighed as he remembered Lucy's nightmare the night before and her reaction to it and any offer of help.

He got into work an hour later, determined to make the most of his lie in, even though he was worried about his flatmate/girlfriend. Tosh as waiting for him and kept him company as he made the morning coffees for the team.

"So?" She asked hoping for some gossip.

"So what?" Ianto asked with a smirk

"So what happened between the pair of you and why as Lucy in so early this morning? Come on Ianto, don't keep my waiting."  
"Last night was lovely. I cooked dinner, we watched TV together and she fell asleep more on me than the sofa."  
"You are officially a thing then?"  
Ianto looked up from the mugs and smiled at the Japanese technician who had made a huge effort to be his friend since the cyberwoman incident, she had succeeded pretty quickly as well.

"If you are asking if I asked her to be my girlfriend and if she said yes? Then yes, we are now what would be called official."  
"Eeeek." Tosh made a sound of delight and gave Ianto a hug. "I'm so happy for the pair of you. You deserve it. So why was she in so early? I checked the CCTV and Lucy got in at 5:30."  
"I don't know, probably because she had a lot of work to do. Since this past incident she decided to be more pro-active and keep our contacts in the police friendlier, she was muttering about Jack employing Andy to be a spy." Tosh laughed.

"Gwen's Andy? She won't be very happy when she hears that."  
"I don't think that even crossed her mind as a problem." Ianto said as he passed her a mug and put the other two - Owen's and Lucy's - onto a tray. "Besides she wasn't being serious, just throwing out wild ideas. But I know she does seriously want to talk to the chief. Mainly to stop them being so pissed off when we take their crime scene."  
"Could be useful" Tosh mused. "I'm going to relive Lucy and take over on Jack watch. I'll see you in a bit. Let me know when Gwen turns up, I need her to look over something for me and I know Lucy wants her down on the range."  
"And I need to know if anything of importance of hers was destroyed and does she want anything done in the rebuild." Ianto added, "I'll talk to you later Tosh."

"See you Ianto." Tosh replied, "I'll make sure to send your girlfriend back upstairs."

"Remind her that I need to check up on her wounds." Owen said, walking up from the medbay as he finished putting the screen up. "It's official then tea-boy, you two finally stopped chasing around each other?"

"Grow up Owen." Tosh laughed

"But where else can I get my awkward teenage fun if not through watching those two?" Owen called after her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh, Ianto, Owen and Lucy had all agreed they needed to talk to Gwen about stopping the 24/7 watch on Jack. That wasn't to say they were giving up on him or forgetting him but life moved on and eventually Jack would 'wake up', they couldn't keep sitting or hovering around him in the hope that today would be the day. They needed to be realistic and Torchwood needed to get back to work, UNIT had taken over the defence of their city for a while but not only was it not fair on them to ask for help, there was also bad blood between the two organisations and the peace wouldn't last for long. There were already mutterings of UNIT wanting something in return for the help offered. The difficult bit was talking to Gwen about it.

"You're certain?" She asked as they stood around his body in the morgue

"He's ice cold." Owen replied, as the doctor it had been decided that he should be the one to break the news to Gwen. She also had the more respect for him than anyone else on the team and would listen to his professional opinion. "There are no vital signs."

"He survived when you shot him. When I first joined he said he couldn't die"

"I know, and he will wake up. But it could take a while."

"Can't we just keep waiting?"  
"The city needs us to do our job." Lucy said, "We can't keep passing the buck to UNIT."  
"So what we just shove him into the freezer?"  
"It's been days." Tosh tried, "we have to face up to it. He's not coming back, at least not for a while. Abaddon took all of his energy."  
"I believe in him." Gwen said stubbornly.

"Let him go Gwen." Tosh said and there was an ounce of pity in her voice that Gwen refused to move on with her life. They all walked away from Jack's body leaving Gwen to come to the decision on her own, knowing that it would not help if they all stood around watching her.

A couple of minutes after they had got back up and were starting to get on with work and make sense of the state Cardiff was in, Gwen appeared again. Hand in hand with Jack.

Tosh was the first to notice them, she stopped working and Lucy looked over to see why. Once she saw Jack standing there, looking as though nothing had happened she kicked Ianto who had been rewiring the container for the Doctor's hand. The Japanese woman ran over to give Jack a hug while Lucy just leaned into Ianto for support and they smiled at their boss - grateful that he was alive again and not quite sure what to say and do. Ianto pulled Lucy along and they walked over to Jack, Lucy felt slightly awkward and hung back a bit - she may not have been the loudest voice in leading the coup against Jack but she had allowed it to happen and allowed Abaddon to escape and take Jack's life force. After Ianto and Jack hugged, even though Ianto had originally just offered his hand for Jack to shake. The captain looked at Lucy and opened his arms. Lucy flew into them and apologised repeatedly, Jack just held her tightly and silently let her know that everything had been forgiven. Lucy was aware of her back flaring in pain because of the hug but at that moment she felt safe in Jack's arms and didn't mind, it was only when she was released that the pain made itself felt and she was aware that she would need more of Owen's wonder drug - no matter how much he hated the name and giving it to her for fear of an addiction.

Owen walked up from the cells, carrying a box which he dropped in shock when he saw Jack hugging Lucy. It was that sound that caused Jack to pull out of the hug and walk towards the doctor who also slowly walked towards him, shame and shock written all over his face. They might have known that Jack was going to come back but for it to happen after they had just resigned themselves for it to not happen for a while was a shock to the system.

"I'm..."

"I forgive you." Jack replied knowing what Owen was trying to say and then pulled the doctor into a hug. Owen might claim that he never cried, and they all turned away in respect but there was no doubt that the return of their boss, and friend, and his forgiveness caused the Londoner to break down in tears.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was the day after Jack had woken up and as it was a nice day and Ianto had to go get some more coffee granules Lucy had decided to go with him on their lunch break - they would also pick Tosh and Owen up from a weevil hunt on the way back.

The cog door rolled back as they entered the hub laughing about something stupid Owen had said to find Gwen looking confused at the hub around them, which was a mess again. Paperwork was scattered across the floor and there was no sign of Jack.

"Did you see Jack on your way in?" Gwen asked

"Must have just missed him." Lucy replied with a small smile, they had decided against the lift and taken the stairs down to the hub just to elongate their break by a minute or so.

"I thought we'd tidied up in here." Owen said looking around, "what's the matter?"  
"I don't know." Gwen replied as Lucy walked over to the sofa and pulled her laptop onto her lap. "But I'm guessing that Lucy does."  
The team turned to face Lucy who looked up with her eyes sparkling and a slight grin.

"What?"  
"You know what?" Ianto replied as he walked past her holding the bag of coffee. "and if you want any of this you'll answer."  
"You're a bastard Ianto, you know that."  
"I know." He replied dryly, "So?"  
"That weird sound that Tosh commented on as we were coming downstairs..." Lucy shrugged as she opened her email. "That was the TARDIS. Jack's gone with the Doctor and after working for Torchwood for nearly 100 years I think he's probably owed some holiday."

"Would have been nice to know in advance." Owen complained as he walked over to his medbay.

"Spoilers." Lucy replied, "He'll be back soon, don't know when but soon."  
"How do you know that, if you don't know when."  
"Because he comes back at the beginning of series 2." Lucy replied, "First couple of minutes of the first episode. Right now he's jumped shows and gone back to Doctor Who, now can I please finish this report or can you let me onto the shooting range. Do you know how much practice it's going to take to get back up to standard?"  
"Tell you what when you stop needing medication every 8 hours you can go back, but not till then." Owen said and Lucy knew that was the best deal she was going to get.

"Right well..." Gwen said trying to take control of the team, they let her because no one could be bothered to argue, "I suppose we just get back to work and learn to run as a team of five and without Jack."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: So, Jack's left, Lucy and Ianto are together, and series 1 of Torchwood is officially over! Which is really weird. There's another 3 chapters before series 2 starts in which I do the Year-That-Never-Was.**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I tried not to make the whole Lucy/Ianto thing too cheesy mainly because I find excessive romance just awkward in RL. So I'm hoping I got it right. However just because they are currently a couple doesn't mean it's going to be easy for them, and I do look at/mention the Jack/Ianto thing later on. Also because my best mate kept joking about Ianto being as 'gay as Christmas', I'd just like to remind people in Children of Earth Day 1 he said it wasn't men it was just Jack. I think I've made it a believable romance between them and I'd love to have your feedback.**

**See you all next week and enjoy the solar eclipse**

**Rea**


	29. Chapter 29 - Coping Without Jack, Part 1

Election day appeared, Lucy watched the clock as it turned 6pm and voting shut. The fate of the earth for the next year was sealed; The Master was their new Prime Minister even if it hadn't been officially announced yet. Gwen came down from Jack's office where she had very smugly gone to take a phone call from Mr Saxon.

"Yes sir, not a problem sir, thank you sir." She said as she hung up.

"What's up?" Owen asked as he came up from his newly repaired medbay, it had been decided by the team that the medical area was the first thing they should get repaired seeing as they used it so often.

"Mr Saxon has a job for us, Ianto can you book us plane tickets to the Himalayas please?"  
Lucy had been walking over from Gwen's workstation, where she had been working while the Welsh woman wasn't using it, to the sofa, hearing Gwen's announcement she stumbled and lost her balance as she tried to save the laptop - managing to throw it onto the sofa as she fell. When she hit the floor she shouted in pain and as she landed on her side and rolled into a ball.

"Shitting fucking hell OW!"

Owen and Ianto ran over to her and gently helped her up as Owen quickly checked her over to make sure she hadn't done any more damage to herself.

"Are you ok?" The doctor asked

"Apart from the fact that bloody hurt I'm fine. Saxon? Gwen since when did we answer to a not-quite member of the government?"  
"We all know that Saxon is a shoo in, why shouldn't we do a job the new Prime Minister has asked us to do?" Gwen replied shrugging off Lucy's question, Lucy also noticed the tapping in a beat of 4 that all the team had started doing. Her only guess for why she was not affected by the low level of hypnosis was because she knew what was happening, the truth about the Time Lord and because her brain was wired differently.

"I just think that we're supposed to answer purely to the monarchy, you know be outside the government. What's the job?"  
"There's something weird going on, and he trusts us more than UNIT to get the job done. Ianto, plane tickets?"  
Ianto sighed and after he was sure that Lucy was ok on the sofa he grabbed the laptop she had thrown, (which amazingly still worked) and started the process to get them a chartered plane to the Himalayas. Annoyingly Jack was the only member of the team with a pilot's licence so they would have to rely on someone else to fly them there, but at the price they would pay it wouldn't be too problematic.

"Lucy can't go. She's not allowed in the field, let alone on a plane." Owen said. Lucy rolled her eyes, she was glad she wasn't allowed to go into the field as it had been weighing on her mind for while, she would now stand a chance of surviving the beginning of the year from hell - she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. However she was also aware that she had to put up a token resistance as it would raise suspicion if she didn't.

"I'm fine." She argued.

"Lucy you just tripped over nothing on our _flat_ floor and swore loudly in pain when you landed due to your back, which tugged at your neck when you curled into a ball. There is no way you'll be able to cope on a mountain and you can't fly because of your medication, even if I thought for one minute that letting you come with us was a good thing."

"I feel fine though."

"And that's because those tablets and the daily injections you're taking is numbing part of your brain from registering most of the continual pain signals that it's receiving."

"But..."  
"No, Lucy."

"Fine." She raised her arms in surrender, "Someone needs to keep an eye on the rift anyway. How long are you going to be gone and be aware that UNIT will be annoyed if I need to call them in for help because you are going away to deal with something that sure be their job."

"We'll probably be at least a week and UNIT will get over it." Gwen said, not really listening to anything apart from her own voice and her pride in the knowledge that Mr Saxon thought enough of them to ask Torchwood to deal with it and not UNIT.  
"So a chartered flight for four then?" Ianto asked

"If you are willing to leave me completely alone for a week. I mean nothing could possibly go wrong?!"  
"You're just jealous that you can't come with us." Gwen replied, allowing Lucy to get under her skin as usual.

"Oh yeah, cause searching through the Himalayas for 'something' sounds like my favourite thing ever. I can't believe that you're going without me and I'll never forgive any of you ever again. I was just pointing out that I'm medically only allowed to go into the field in a case of life or death and things that could result in the end of the world. So maybe, just maybe, leaving me on my own isn't the best idea." Lucy smirked, enjoying riling Gwen up but getting equally riled up by the Welsh woman.

"We all know you won't listen to that rule anyway."

"A fully trained Roman soldier sliced my neck and back open, running after a weevil is not something I can really do. No matter how annoyed I am about it. I do understand that concept of resting while my wounds heal so they can heal as quickly as possible. I just haven't always had that freedom, that's all. I don't like being forced to not do anything but I _do_ understand it."

"Oh shut up the pair of you" Owen snapped. "We can't leave Lucy here by herself because I haven't cleared her for the field yet. Gwen you stay with her and the three of us will go - Ianto needs more experience in the field anyway. After this when Jack is back he'll be fully cleared for field work and not just joining in on weevil hunts when we're busy with other things."

"What?!"  
"No way am I staying with her."  
Both Lucy and Gwen immediately voiced their unhappiness at the idea

"I'm the one Mr Saxon spoke to, I know all the information."

"You can write it down." Owen shrugged. "But this arguing between the pair of you is getting stupid, especially now we're a man down."

"So I'm stuck here with her for at least a week." Lucy's face showed just how displeased she was with this idea and Gwen looked equally unimpressed. Owen's face stayed harsh as he turned to Ianto.  
"Get a plane for three."

Ianto couldn't help but catch his new girlfriend's eye and tried not to smile at how the two women were going to cope alone as he sorted out a plane to leave Cardiff City Airport first thing the next morning to send them to Gatwick where they would jump straight onto a different plane to Nepal.

"For the record, I'm not happy about this job, let alone being left here with Gwen" Lucy mumbled

"I think the record is pretty aware" Tosh said with a small smile. "But if Saxon has asked for our help then we'll go to the Himalayas and help. It's an honour to be asked."

Lucy was knew that it was not worth arguing with them, they were under the thrall of the Master.  
"Fine." She sagged into the sofa, "I'm not happy about it but fine. Before you guys piss off and leave me in my own personal hell can we work out what we're going to do without Jack."  
"How long is he going to be gone?" Tosh asked worried about the answer she was going to get.

"Dunno." Lucy replied, shrugging and then wincing in regret with a small stab of pain. "I honestly can't remember when he comes back. But we've got another series of Torchwood to go - he's just jumped back to the original show for a couple of episodes."  
"End of series three yeah?" Tosh asked remembering something Lucy had said a while ago, and she nodded.

"So that was what was important about Election Day" Gwen said glad to have got to the bottom of what had previously been annoying her as it had seemed to be a random date by which she would have been told the truth about her colleagues past.

"Yeah, they mention it in episode 3.12 and it's just one of those things that I randomly remembered." Lucy said trying to make it seem like it wasn't important.

"You are such a geek." Owen said mockingly "Remembering something a throwaway line from a TV show. When did you last watch it?"  
"Six, seven months ago." Lucy replied. "I prefer to watch the Classic Who right now. I don't know those stories as well as I know the modern ones yet. Plus there is always other things to watch, films, other things the BBC in this world made instead of Doctor Who, other TV shows that looked interesting but I never got round to watching. Most aren't quite as good and some are downright rubbish - Atlantis for one, it had so much potential but didn't actually use it. Just cause I'm a Doctor Who geek and technically Doctor Who doesn't exist in this world it doesn't mean that I can't do other things with my life. And I'm quite proud of being a Doctor Who geek really."

"You've managed to catch a fiery one here, Ianto. The geeks and quiet ones are always the ones with the secrets." The doctor joked, Lucy threw a cushion at him who dodged it as the team laughed.

"Before my girlfriend murders our doctor," Ianto said wryly and Lucy smiled at the term 'girlfriend' "and before we take the risk of leaving Lucy and Gwen together alone for at least a week we haven't actually answered her question about how we cope without Jack."

"I guess we just keep going." Tosh shrugged. "There's not much we can do."  
"I mean do we tell our bosses and how to do we split up Jack's work?"  
"Jack _is_ our boss." Gwen said stubbornly. "And apart from give us orders what does Jack do?"  
"You mean apart from all the paperwork involved in being the leader? Having a fuck lot of knowledge that we use most of the times we go into the field when the rest of us have no idea what we are dealing with? Talking to the heads of all the other agencies? Making sure we stay on top of everything? Nah, Jack does fuck all really."

"I was only asking so I know what we should split."

"Well I don't want all the added paperwork and there is nothing we can do about the knowledge." Owen said with a shrug none of them were expecting anything different from the doctor, who would shove any work that wasn't medical onto the others if he could get away with it.

"Well you and Ianto are the senior officers as medic and head archivist, Ianto's got the longest serving record but hasn't got the field experience." Tosh pointed out. "I can't do it."

"Why not?" Gwen asked.

"I just can't." Tosh shrugged looking uncomfortable at the question.

"I'm busy with the archives, I can help with the paperwork but that's all."

"Well I'm the newest."

"And I don't want the job."

"So none of us want to take over from Jack then." Gwen said summing up the problem.

"Why don't we just see who naturally takes the lead." Tosh offered. "We split the paperwork and phone calls between us and just see what happens. That way no one can complain because we all have the opportunity to step up"

"Seems fair enough to me." Gwen agreed.

"As long as we can agree that the budget shouldn't change until Jack is back" Owen said "That way none of us can give more money to our own area."  
"I'm going to write a list of things you'll need to do while we're not here." Tosh said as she turned back to her workstation. "You know how to do the basic things, CCTV, Crimnet, tracking and hacking etc. But there are some extra regular searches that you'll need to do." Lucy couldn't help but be worried but knew that asking any more questions would mean answers that were way over her head.

"Simple and tick list, Tosh, keep it simple and as a tick list." Lucy begged

"I'll make it as simple as possible and give it to Gwen, don't worry." The technician replied with a smile.

"If you're leaving tomorrow morning you may as well go pack and get ready for the trip." Gwen said. "I'll write down everything Mr Saxon told me. Tosh is there any way you can reroute the alerts to come through on our mobiles so we don't need to be in the hub 24/7"

"Not too difficult to get it to go on my PDA. I'll leave you with my second-best one and take my favourite with me and pack once I've sorted everything out for you. That way you can go home at night."

"Thanks Tosh." Gwen said and Lucy echoed her sentiments

"I'll make sure you've got enough meds too." Owen added, "Gwen how good are you at injections?"  
"Not brilliant why?"  
"Lucy can do her daily one herself but I'll give you a crash course in case anything happens and you need to do it in an emergency. _**Only**_ to be used when you need it mind Lucy - this stuff is damn strong and addictive, there's a reason I keep it to a minimum."

"Yeah, yeah." Lucy waved him off but it was still obvious that she was grateful that Owen was thinking of her. "So what do I do then, while you're all prepping stuff for this mission?"  
Everyone looked at her not sure what she could do, Lucy sighed and went to tug on her plait but stopped just before she could hurt herself.

"I want to go shoot something, dammit. Ok I'll send a quick text and then get a head start on trying to understand Jack's paperwork and splitting it into piles for when you get back. Maybe tidy up the tourist office or something..."  
"Who are you texting?" Ianto asked as he came and sat next to her now he had sorted their flight out, Lucy leant into him and pulled out her phone.  
"Jack. He might not be able to get it when he's travelling but we have no clue when he's back and he might want to know that half of his team has gone on holiday to the other side of the world"

"Not a bad idea."  
"I know," She said with a straight face, "It's amazing what I can think of when I'm bored out of my mind. Don't forget to take the earpieces with you, it'll mean not having to pay to talk to each other in case anything happens."

Tosh grabbed the pile that were on her desk, to show that she had already thought of that and they all returned to their own work preparing for tomorrow, when Mr Saxon would officially be Prime Minister of Great Britain.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

All the monitors in the hub flashed red. "ALERT MESSAGE FROM MR SAXON BROADCASTING ON ALL CHANNELS"

"GWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN" Lucy called to the Welshwoman who had been feeding Myfanwy. Ianto had left strict orders about how much meat should be left in her nest and how often, Lucy was unable to help out as it involved lugging heavy bags of meat.

"What?!"  
"Broadcast from Saxon, coming in on all channels. He's on every screen."

"I'm coming." Lucy heard a thud as the meat was dropped where ever Gwen had previously been and her feet hitting the ground as she ran down to the central area.

"Britain, Britain, Britain," Mr Saxon said on the screen. "What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago this world was so small. And then they came. Out of the unknown. Falling from the skies."  
"What the hell is he doing?" Lucy asked.

"Jack always said the 21st century is when everything changes, why not because of this?"  
"You've seen it happen, Big Ben - destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men, the Christmas Star that came to kill. Time and time again and the government told you nothing."

"I love how he hasn't mentioned anything that's happened in Cardiff, honestly London couldn't care less about us." Lucy scoffed.

"Shush, he's English it happens."  
"Well not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose, here today, is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain..." He took a dramatic pause. "... I have been contacted. A message for humanity from beyond the stars."

The image changed to show a floating gold sphere with bright lights on it.

"People of the earth." The sphere said, it sounded feminine but Lucy and Gwen had long ago stopped thinking like that with regards to alien species, you could easily be wrong and they could be very offended. "We come in peace. We bring you great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection and all we ask in return is your friendship."  
"Oh sweet." Mr Saxon said in a voice that you would use when talking to an infant. "and this species has identified itself. They're called the Toclafane. And tomorrow morning they will appear, not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child, every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer and, oh I don't know, every medical student?" The screen turned black as the broadcast finished and it returned to what it had been previously.

Lucy and Gwen stared at each other, everything they had been working for had been broken, there was plans in place for something like this, plans that Mr Saxon had completely ignored, plans that were there to try and keep as many people as safe as possible.

"Errrr, I'll start the phone calls and you try and get through to the others." Lucy said, looking uncomfortable. "And you might want to let Rhys know you're not coming home till late tonight if you go home at all."

"You start with UNIT, I'll call Frobisher see if he heard anything that might now be useful."

Gwen pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent a quick text to Rhys as she turned on the ear piece so she could let the rest of the team know what was happening. In a few hours the whole world would be aware but the internet reception was not known for working well in the peaks of the Himalayan mountain range. Lucy grabbed her own phone and called their contact in the upper levels of UNIT.

"Major. It's Torchwood, did you have any idea he was going to do that?" She asked knowing that Major Bambry would also be busy and getting straight to the point was the best thing for both of them. "... No sir, this was news to us as well, the name doesn't ring any bells. We'll check our archives later though... yes sir I understand... we _are_ separate from the government sir. The Prime Minister isn't even supposed to know we exist, that's what you are for... no sir, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant UNIT is the official face of alien investigation and we're just a small team... ... yes sir... sir I understand that he's my Prime Minister, but I didn't vote for him and we had no clue, there was no sign that he was going to do this... sir I understand that when you met him he was a lovely man... he was a great secretary for defence, I'm not saying anything about that... yes sir... I'll let you know if we find anything sir, if you could do me the same honour... sir I understand that you've been picked as one of the men to go on board the Valiant tomorrow, I'm just asking that you keep us in the loop..."

"Bastard." She muttered as he hung up on her. "I'm going to make some coffee then call the royal family and start the search in the archives. Ask Ianto if he has any idea where we might find anything." Lucy called over to Gwen who had got through and was fervently talking to the rest of their small team, Gwen replied with a thumbs up and returned her concentration to the voices on the other side of the ear piece.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"We've got an email from an unknown email address" Gwen called over as she went to check the computers. It had been a full on day trying to find out everything they could about what Saxon was going to do, without her explaining that she already knew. Jack, the Doctor and Martha had become the three most wanted people in the UK, which made their job harder because they were getting phone calls from their normal contacts asking about Jack instead of about what was going to happen tomorrow. Lucy walked over to join her and have a look over her shoulder.

"Open it then, and we should probably forward it onto Jack. I mean we know he's back in same time zone as us."  
"Why hasn't he contacted us yet then?"  
"Because we're supposed to be in the Himalayas." Lucy replied, "Plus he's now one of the most wanted people on the planet, he's hardly going to be contacting us. They'll be staying underground. We've seen the footage of what he's done to Martha Jones' family."  
"I suppose. But he's supposed to trust us, we're his team."

"He's on the run and we're supposed to be somewhere else. Just open the video attached to the email and let's see what they have to say." She leant across Gwen and opened the attachment.

"If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200 this file will be emailed to Torchwood." The woman on the screen said. "Which means if you're watching this then I'm... Anyway the Saxon files are attached, but take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started, when Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network"

"Who's she?" Gwen asked as Lucy pushed her out of her seat and started typing away so it could be sent on to Jack. "How did she get hold of an email address for Torchwood?"  
"Journalist I would guess and no idea. We'll find that out when we have the time, maybe tomorrow." Lucy replied. "I've added this message for Jack _'Captain, thought you might want this. I'm not allowed in the field and while the others are in the Himalayas I've been left with Myfwany even though we've always hated each other, might release our pets if everything goes badly as I don't want them locked up and scared. UNIT are all arses of the highest order but I'm glad we're separate from their bosses. Give my love to your friends and let them know that Cardiff isn't the safest place right now but we are good at keeping the vermin out. Lucy. P.S my hometown has made my brain different from everyone elses'_

"What the hell does that mean? Why didn't you mention me?" Gwen asked irate and confused.

"Because as far as Saxon is concerned we shouldn't be in Cardiff, if anyone apart from Jack reads that email they won't get the actual message."  
"What is the actual message?"  
"Basically that the two of us are in Cardiff, UNIT are working with the government, we'll help out in any way possible and that if the world goes to shit I'm going to release weevils and a dinosaur onto the street of Cardiff. The P.S is just a way of confirming to Jack that it's actually come from me, no one else knows where I come from and even if they do they won't know about the research that Owen did and what it means." She didn't say that it would also inform Jack that she wasn't affected by the Master's hypnotism.

"And you think that's useful?"  
"I think Jack would want to know. Do you want me to add anything else to the email or can I encrypt it and send it now?"

"Fine, go for it."

"Good." Lucy pressed the encryption button that Tosh had on her computer and sent it on to Jack's wrist strap. By sending it that way it would add an extra layer of encryption which would hopefully mean that no one else would be able to read it, and if they did Lucy was pretty certain that they wouldn't be able to completely understand it. She was also pretty certain that Tosh had added a big red button marked 'encrypt' just for her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy and Gwen sat around the computer screen, like everyone else with access to the internet on the planet that morning they would be watching 'first contact'.

_"And in just 30 seconds time we'll be going live to First Contact. It's been announced that Harold Saxon has invited President Winters to take the address."_  
"Invited or been forced do you think?" Lucy asked. "We've both read the original plans."  
"Forced probably, UNIT would have had no choice because he broke the rules. Winters is an idiot though."

"All politicians are."  
"Saxon's a good man, he's probably doing what he thinks he right, the people do deserve to know." Gwen defended him and before Lucy had the chance to say anything the image on the screen changed to Winters' face. It was 8:00, first contact had started

_"My fellow Americans, patriots, people on the world. I stand before you today as an Ambassador for humanity. A role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much. But what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew. For as long as man has looked to the stars he was wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone we will no longer have to wonder, we will know and we will never look at the sky in the same way again. Our lives will be changed forever, new jobs will be made..."  
_"Yeah and old ones will either be destroyed or become a lot more complicated." Lucy muttered, Gwen nodded in agreement but still shushed her.

"_And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. The Toclafane_." As he said their name they appeared, four of them floating around the President. "_My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and Designated Representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon."_

_**"You're not the Master.**_**"** One of the Toclafane said.  
_**"We like the Mr Master."  
"We don't like you."**_

_"I can be Master if you so wish."_ Winters said trying to regain control of the situation as they floated in a circle around him

"What's going on?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know but my guess is that everything has gone wrong."

"_**Man is stupid."  
"Master is our friend."**_  
_**"Where's my Master? Pretty Please?"**_

_"Oh all right then. It's me!" _Saxon said jumping up from his seat. His claim of 'ta-da' was accompanied with jazz hands. _"Sorry. I have this effect, people just get obsessed. Is it the smile, is it the aftershave, is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know, it's crazy"_

"Gwen check the files for A Master, The Master, anything that might help us." Lucy ordered as she started to the process to put the hub in lock down, no one could get in or out.  
"What are you doing that for?" Gwen asked as she opened up the laptop.  
"Something has gone wrong and whatever happens the hub needs to be protected. If I'm wrong we can reverse the lockdown and open it up again and you can shout at me later."

_"Saxon what are you talking about?" _Winters demanded

_"I'm taking control Uncle Sam. Starting with you. Kill him" _The bottom of the spheres grew knives and a laser shot at the President vaporising him in less than a second, he didn't even have time to scream. Suddenly a lot of the men in suits pulled guns out keeping the other guests in the same place, of course there were no soldiers in the room to protect them because the treaty declared that there should be no armed personnel at first contact as a show of good faith.

_"Nobody move! Nobody move."_ The cameras continued filming. "_Now then. Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully._" Someone shouted 'stop him' and Saxon stopped looking at the camera and at someone off screen. _"We meet at last Doctor. Oh! I love saying that!"_

_"Stop this! Stop it now." _The Doctor shouted

"_As if a perception filter is gonna work on me. And look it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which ones which." _Jack ran into view as the Master pulled something out of his inner pocket and a laser came out from the end and killed him. _"Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" _

_"Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing, just stop! If you could see yourself" _The Doctor begged, the TV camera's turned back to face the Master.

_"Oh do excuse me, a little bit of personal business back in a minute." _

The test card appeared on the screen and Lucy and Gwen stared first at it and then at each other.

"Still believe Saxon is the be all and end all?" Lucy asked sarcastically.

"He killed Jack." Gwen breathed.

"Yup and by now he's probably alive again, and maybe dead again too."  
"He's an alien?"

"A Time Lord according to the UNIT files you found. One who had a lot of plans to enslave Earth in the 70s or 80s depending on what record you look at. UNIT don't seem to be too sure about it either."  
"Rhys is out there and you've locked us in." Gwen said accusingly  
"And an alien is the Prime Minister and has plans to take over the world. I hate to say this Gwen but right now your boyfriend is not our priority. We need to do our job, we'll rescue Rhys as soon as we can. I promise."

_"So Earthlings!"_ The Master said as the screen turned back on again. _"Basically, um... End of the world" _He raised the laser screwdriver. _"Here. Come. The. Drums." _Voodoo Child started playing as Lucy Saxon started dancing and nodding her head in time to the music, not caring about what her husband was doing or the sky splitting in two and Toclafane pouring through. The Master blew a kiss at the Doctor as he pulled his wife to the viewing platform and they looked out at the invasion together.

_"How many do you think?"  
"I don't know."_

_"Six billion." _He flicked a button and the music turned off _"Down you go, kids!"_

Lucy and Gwen watched on the CCTV as people ran out into the street to get a proper look at what was happening and the killing started.

_"Shall we decimate them? That sounds good, nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population."_

**A/N: So this is the beginning of the Year-That-Never-Was. Hope you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing what you think about next weeks chapter *cackles evilly* You have NO idea what's coming.**

**And Happy 10th Birthday Modern Who!**

**See you all next Friday as normal**

**Rea**


	30. Chapter 30 - The Year That Never Was

Lucy and Gwen watched the TV screen in horror.

"_Remove one tenth of the population_." The Master ordered.

"No." Gwen breathed as she realised that what was happening on the screen wasn't a sick joke or a film, it was really happening. "NO!" She screamed louder as the CCTV showed the Toclafane descending on Cardiff, killing every tenth person they met. Each death was senseless and random and Lucy refused to look away. There was nothing she could do but she would not dishonour any one of their deaths, deaths that she had done nothing to even try and stop, by looking away and turning off the screen. These were images that would stay with her until she died or the timeline was reset, whichever one came first, and she vowed to use it as a reminder of why she must continue to fight the Master even though she knew how this was going to end. She curled her hands into fists, not noticing when she broke the recently healed wound from where she had sliced her palm open to let Tosh write with her blood. Even though the whole of reality and time was going to be reset she could not allow herself to just wait it out in the relative safety of the hub. She would fight, she _had_ to fight.

Lucy pressed the final couple of buttons to put the hub into lock down and refused to cry as Gwen tried to get through to Rhys as the screams of Cardiff echoed into the hub. As the horror ended, the city fell into silence as the survivors stared at the death surrounding them and Gwen still couldn't get through to Rhys. Lucy grabbed Gwen's phone from her hand and smashed it on the floor.  
"What the hell was that for?" Gwen asked, panicked, "What if Rhys tried to call me?"

"Saxon had ownership of all of the satellites and was using it to send out hypnotic suggestions. How the hell do you think he got in power? He didn't exist 18 months ago. We'll keep to the ear pieces, they only go through the hub and we've hijacked UNIT's receiver on the moon, the Master doesn't have control over that."  
"YOU KNEW!"  
"Of course I bloody knew! You can't imagine that the series ending wasn't a big deal and that I wouldn't know something like this was going to happen. So yes, I bloody knew. I also know that this ends with the Doctor winning, the Master dying and time being reset to 8:02 this morning. Everyone who died will be ok but until then we need to fight and to help Martha."

"Martha?"  
"Martha Jones. The Doctor's companion, she's going to travel the Earth and tell stories. We're going to try to make it as easy for her as possible. Got it?" Gwen nodded numbly. "Good, well until we are proved differently we have to assume that the others are dead - they've got their own headsets. The Master sent them there to keep us away from Jack, there would have been a higher proportion of Toclafane going after them."  
"They're dead... oh god I sent them to their deaths... he killed..."

Lucy could see Gwen going into shock and took pleasure in slapping her, hard.  
"Pull yourself together. Fast. Panic later - you were hypnotised, it's not your fault. I don't blame you and they wouldn't blame you. They are probably dead, but we're alive - focus on that."

"You slapped me."  
"Yup."  
"You actually slapped me."  
"Yup"

"You liked it."  
"Course I did. I don't like you Gwen and you don't like me, but right now we're all the other has. Right now we're the only resistance against the Master until we can get other people safe and on our side."  
"What about Rhys?"  
"We'll go looking for him and he'll almost certainly come looking for you, he might not know what the job involves but he knows you work down in the bay. You're not the only one who may have lost her boyfriend. But the difference is there's a 90% chance your boyfriend is alive, there is probably the same chance that mine is dead, more than that. So we keep going because we have no other damn choice. Now help me find a bandage for my hand and let's get to work."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was a relief for both of them when they found Rhys a few days later, Gwen for obvious reasons and Lucy because it stopped Gwen from moping so much. There had been radio silence from Tosh, Owen and Ianto in the Himalaya's and they had both come to the same conclusion separately; they were the only members of Torchwood left alive. The Master was using the Toclafane to make a census of each of the major cities in the world and as a capital city, Cardiff was included. Six days after the Master had power it was the turn for Europe to be counted and split into groups of important and not important. The whole of planet Earth was in shock and mourning; everyone had lost someone, wars in the Middle East had stopped and the Toclafane had been sent to 'keep an eye' on every army and the Old-World Leaders to make sure that they "didn't do anything stupid".

The previously abstract concept of being beyond the government suddenly became very real and not just a throwaway line that Jack liked to use, it was well known that Torchwood 3 was based in Cardiff but no one was quite sure exactly where it was except that it was in the general direction of the bay. This meant that no one could tell their new lord where Torchwood was, something that he was not happy with and was probably the reason why there was a higher proportion of Toclafane in the area.

On the day of the census Lucy and Gwen took everything they could find from the archives that was supposed to be able to keep you hidden, neither of them wanted to take any risks and were hoping that at least one of these devices worked. By not turning up to the census they were hoping that they would just be declared dead and stop being Undesirables 4 and 5, it might not be a perfect plan but it would do for now, give them enough time to try to do something. Using the lift they were able to slip into a large group of people who were being herded by the floating spheres into the Millennium Building, both thanking their lucky stars that the hall opposite their base was one of the many being used, it meant they had less time and distance to risk being spotted in.

Rhys was halfway down one of the queues marked as 'Other' which meant that he had no skills that the Master had thought of as useful and would almost certainly become part of the general workforce; he was unimportant, he could be replaced. As Gwen went to rescue her boyfriend and get him into the hub, Lucy looked to see who was putting up the most resistance - specifically from the doctors and the engineers/technicians to see if there was anyone there that would be able to join the resistance, no matter how small it was currently. However it didn't look like there was anyone, the shock and the low hypnotic field combined with the Toclafane swooping around them was causing everyone to stand uncomfortably in their line, looking warily at the people around them in silence.

"I've got him - we're on the lift." Gwen said though the ear piece. "Any sign of someone good or useful?"  
"Just sheep here that I can see." Lucy replied. "I'm going to set off an electronic bomb and then make a raid on Tescos while all the Toclafane surge here to find out what's happened. Do you want to come with me? I'm not sure when we'll next resurface and although we have plenty of food already getting more is always useful - I've only got a rucksack."  
"I'm not sure if I should leave Rhys here, he's going into shock at me being alive and rescuing him - that's not even mentioning the posters that were up declaring us the most wanted people on the Earth."  
"Well like I said I've only got a single rucksack, can't you just leave him in the hub and give me a hand? We want as much food as possible."

Lucy could hear muttering as Gwen discussed the problem with her boyfriend, before Gwen sighed when she spoke again she didn't sound very happy about the decision made.

"We'll both come. Join us on the lift ASAP"

"No problem. Time to make the Master's day just that bit worse." She opened up her bag and pulled out the electronic bomb that she had found under Tosh's desk when they had been searching to for information of the hub's defences. As she got closer to the front of the queue Lucy slipped out and moved behind the desk where an army officer was taking all the information. She crouched down and pulled out a bunch of cables and connected the bomb to it, once she was sure that everything was done properly (instructions they'd found on Tosh's desktop in a file marked 'Electric bomb for dummies', next to 'how to make a bomb and not kill yourself at the same time'). When she was at the door she pressed the red trigged button causing all the electrics to flicker before turning off and the panic started.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy cursed as she was backed into a corner trying to defend herself and the gun she had stolen from one of the dead UNIT soldiers that had been chasing her finally ran out of bullets. She now had two choices and both of them ended with her on the Valiant facing the Master, she could go willingly or by force.

It was nine months into the year from hell Gwen had been shot and killed 6 weeks ago and the Master had been furious that it had happened on a shoot off on Earth and he hadn't been able to see it happen - only being presented with Gwen's body had calmed him down a bit. It was well known that Gwen and Lucy were the leaders of the rebellion and they were doing everything they could to distract him from Martha, help her across the Earth and make his day as bad as possible - even if it was just by small things. Although the time that they were able to send a missile up to the Valiant and almost caused it to fall into the sea had definitely been one of their better plans, and had severely pissed off the Time Lord, two days later Japan burned as they had to rush to get Martha out in time. They had managed to get Martha across Africa, South and North America and were currently putting provisions in place to get her out of Asia next month, each day the ex-companion was getting closer and closer to the UK.

Lucy caught her scarred and tired face in her reflection in a puddle as she tried to work out what to do now; when this had started she had been worried about the scar from the Roman solider which had ended up being worse than Owen had originally promised due to lack of medical help. It was ugly and ropey but she no longer cared, the rest of her was now covered in visible smaller scars where bullets had nicked her and she had only just got out of many places alive; the toclafane had made a building fall on them at one point. She had lost a lot of weight which had caused her to put home-made holes in her gun holster so it stayed safely on her hip and there was no chance of losing it. Her eyes were tired and made her look at least ten years older than her 23 years and her hair was filthy - her signature hair style had come undone in the fight.

"Come out Miss Smith. You can't hide from our Master forever."  
Willingly. Lucy decided. She would go willingly.

"I'm coming." She called out and stepped out of her slightly protected area. "I'll be dead by the end of the day anyway."

"Throw your gun to the floor and kick it over here." The UNIT Major called - UNIT had become known as the best of the best, or the worst of the worst whichever way you wanted to look at it. They were the ones the Master sent in before the Toclafane appeared and killed everyone in the 'problem' area. Lucy kicked the gun away from her and one of the soldiers picked it up.

"Can you give me a minute to do my hair properly?" Lucy asked mockingly with her hands in the air in surrender. "Wouldn't want to face my Lord and Master not looking like myself." There was a stunned silence at her request. "Come on..." She called. "I'm Lucy Smith, the 2nd most wanted person on planet Earth only behind Martha Jones, all the released photos of me have my plait. I'm the only person to have this hair style because people have been badly injured as others thought they were me. It would be impolite to turn up not looking like me."

"Fine." The Major huffed. "Do your hair, you have exactly 60 seconds."  
"Thank you." Lucy said with a joking curtsey and pulled a spare hair tie off her wrist and quickly sorted out her plait with 5 seconds to spare, suddenly giving her father a small burst of gratitude, if it hadn't been for his shouting and insistence that they had to be silent during any match that he wasn't watching in the pub she never would have thought about speed plaiting and trying to beat her previous time. She rarely thought of him in a good light and it was a weird thing to be grateful for but she just shoved it down, now was not the time to let her mind wander

"Ok." She said, once more raising her hands, "I'm ready. Take me to your Master. I've always wanted to say that."

She stood on the deck of the Valiant with her head held high. All the Jones family and Jack had been pulled onto the main deck to watch her execution, which was also going to be televised later to try and deter anyone else from joining the rebellion. The Master stood at the top of the steps behind the line of UNIT soldiers and Toclafane, tapping on the banister.

"1234 1234 1234" She said in time with his tapping, she may have surrendered and come willingly but that didn't mean Lucy Smith was not going to go out without a bang or a fight. "The drums playing any particular song today or is it just more continuous noise?"

The Master jumped down and pushed the soldiers aside strode up to her.

"You seem remarkably cocky for someone whose about to die."

"Well, Magister," she replied using one of his earlier alibis, determined not to give him the satisfaction of calling him her master. "It seems that if I'm going to die I might as well have fun with it. I mean, I know where the nightingale is and you don't." He had tensed at the use of one of Martha's code names but she wasn't finished. "And really, apart from the fact as a Time Lord you're prejudiced against Jack you're also just jealous. You always wanted to be immortal and this little human managed it by accident. And he doesn't even want it... he's trying to work how to get rid of it."

His hand was now around her neck and was starting to cut off her blood supply but she was determined to continue. "You're scared of the Doctor but you lock him up, if it was any other Time Lord you would have killed him until he had gone through all his remaining regenerations..." the hand was even tighter and she was struggling to breathe as he pushed her up against the wall.

She could see Jack and everyone watching her in horror all wishing that they didn't have to watch but knew that if they didn't things would be much worse for them.

"LUCY STOP" Jack shouted eventually not able to watch it any longer and the Master smirked knowing this would harm the Captain more than the killings did, watching him torture one of the _famous_ Torchwood before her death. It was almost pity there was only this one left.

"No I think she should continue" He replied loosening his hold, "let her say what she has to and then she can be killed in a way that's fitting for such treason."

"You won't kill the Doctor," Lucy continued wishing she could soothe her throat, but the handcuffs that kept her hands tied behind her back prevented that. "because you used to be his friend. And even though the drums have screwed with your mind, somewhere in the back of your head..." she took a deep breath and the Master turned and took a gun from one of the UNIT soldiers behind him and trained it on her. She couldn't help but give a slight smile at being one of the few people to have the 'honour' of being killed personally by the Master.

"No please continue and tell me why I won't kill the Doctor, I would be fascinated to know. I mean I will shoot you the second you finish speaking but they would be worthwhile last words."

Her eyes looked past the gun to the ancient Time Lord in the wheelchair looking at her with confusion and sorrow in his eyes hoping he could see her faith and forgiveness and that she was ok with her death, it wasn't ideal, but it was worthwhile. She had reached a point where she was happy with her life and when someone had destroyed that she had raged against him and gone down with a fight.

"Because somewhere the Time Tot you were is screaming at you to protect your best friend, the one you used to run with on your father's estates." He pulled the safety off and started to aim so she decided to leave with a final comment. "Because as much as you hate it, part of you will always be Koschei of the House of Oakdown" The gun shot and she collapsed to the floor. Dead.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N *waves white flag and dodges bullets* please don't kill me. Have a good Easter and I'll see you next week. *dives back into safety and then sticks head out again.*  
Oh please review as well, there's only 3 more reviews needed till I hit 100 and that would be amazing. I've never had such a response to a story before, and it means even more because Torchwood isn't on any more. So thank you for the previous 97 reviews, you guys are the best.**


	31. Chapter 31 - Coping Without Jack, Part 2

They watched the Toclafane vaporise the President in horror and then the screen went black. Lucy sighed in relief leaning back into her chair and watched the clock tick from 8:02 to 8:03. It was done, the 'Year That Never Was' was over. She had no memory or no idea about what had happened but Martha had done it; they were safe.

"What happened?" Gwen asked. "He killed the President and then said he was going to take control and then it just..."

"It's over." Lucy replied not being able to hide the smile on her face as relief washed through her. Logically she knew that she would never notice the year that occurred at 8:03, but to know was something different. To not have the memory of what she presumed was hell, was a relief. There was always the fear and suspicion that she would have been on the Valiant with Martha, and if she was honest with herself Lucy knew the only reason that she would not have been on the Space ship was if she was dead. She could think of no other reason why she wouldn't accompany Martha on the final leg of her journey. "The worst happened and Martha and the Doctor save the day, or the year depending on how you want to think about it."  
"The year?"

"Oh the Master controlled and butchered the planet for a year using a paradox machine connected to the Doctor's TARDIS, which Jack broke and time was reset." She shrugged it off not caring about the wave of pain that followed it - certain that she would have been in more pain in the previous year. "I'm going to go get a chocolate cake to celebrate, don't suppose you want a drink?"  
"It's 8:03 in the morning!"  
"And there isn't an evil Time Lord in control of the earth." Lucy replied as she got up. "Sounds like a good reason to celebrate to me."

"If you say so but as I don't fully understand I won't bother. I'll start the phone calls."  
"It's not really our problem now the Master isn't involved. UNIT and the government can sort it out and put a new PM in place and the States have got a deputy for these kind of situations."  
"What it's normal to for the President of the United States to be vaporised?"  
"Well no. But the potential of being killed is fairly high." she grabbed her coat and pulled it on. "I'll call the others when I get back. Oh and make sure Jack's taken off the most wanted list." She said walking out of the hub, the sun was getting higher and although everyone was confused and in shock they were still alive; if the day hadn't been saved the decimation of the planet would have started by now.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy couldn't help but be annoyed when Gwen seemed to be the one who stepped up and became their new leader after the loss of Jack. Seemed - because Owen was in control and giving the orders most of the time in the field and because Lucy had taken on a lot of Jack's paperwork. But somehow Gwen had become the one they reported to and asked them to do specific things that weren't just their own projects. No one else seemed that bothered by it, but then she and Gwen had never got along anyway so they all just put it down to the personality clash. None of the others had noticed that she was doing the paperwork either, they were all busy with their own.

They had originally split the surprisingly large pile into six; technical - Tosh, medical - Owen, weapons - Lucy, archives - Ianto, people outside of Torchwood - Gwen and other. They had then tried to fairly split up the other pile but Lucy's was bigger than the rest to begin with and she quietly took the majority of Tosh's too. Plus Owen wasn't well known for doing his own paperwork at the best of times, so they had somehow ended up on Lucy's desk as well. She had also taken to having phone calls with the Superintendent of the Cardiff police force in the, successful, hope that by improving their relationship both groups would be able to do their jobs more efficiently. It wasn't that she minded doing all this extra work or that Gwen had become the leader - she knew it was going to happen and it meant that she could just quietly get on with her job in the background. But it would have been nice to have a 'thank you' or a 'well done' once in a while, from someone who wasn't Ianto. After all the amount of extra work she had taken on meant that Gwen was having a much easier time as a leader than she would have done normally.

It took them a while to get into the swing of it and to stop automatically turning to ask Jack questions but they managed it. Torchwood 3 was running efficiently without their leader. As they all knew, and Lucy had confirmed it, that Jack was going to come back, they made excuses for him when people called; saying he was out on the field or on another call. If anything, Jack leaving caused them to work better as a team, something they were hoping would continue once he returned. Ianto had also become a fully integrated part of the team and was now regularly going out into the field with them. Even Gwen and Lucy went out together, they might not be friends but they trusted each other in the field and were a good team.

Life without Jack was hard, harder than they had expected but they pushed through it. That didn't stop any of them looking forward to when he returned and things went back to normal though.

Of course as Lucy didn't know any of the 'adventures' or 'incidents' while Jack was away it lead to conversation about her knowledge and what stories of the Doctor that she could tell them. It also meant that they had worked out she had known what was going to happen in regards to Abbadon, Lucy thought that they had probably all thought she had known about that, but voicing it was different.

"You let that happen!" Gwen accused. "He killed Rhys. Jack was dead for a week."  
"I know." Lucy said, "My back screaming at me when I try to do too much reminds me what I let happen. Yes Rhys was dead, but he came back. Jack died but he saved the planet and came back. You don't get it Gwen, as far as I'm concerned these things are fixed. I can't change them from happening, I can only help to fix it as quickly as possible."  
"I don't like it."

"I know you don't but you'll have to learn to live with it. Tosh what was it you originally asked?"

"How many things that you knew have happened already?"  
"13 Torchwood stories, and a handful of Doctor Who ones. Torchwood started with Gwen turning up and I know all the contemporary Doctor Who, the hospital disappearing – they really did go to the moon – Lazarus, Blink – but you won't have noticed that happening. We should probably look into it though, maybe cement the angels in a block or something. Don't want some unsuspecting estate agent moving them and setting them free."  
"Setting who free?" Owen drawled.

"The angels." Lucy replied and she could see the team were not impressed with the idea of an alien race known as the 'angels', it also didn't truly explain their horror. "The lonely assassins. They move in the blink of an eye, literally, and one touch will send you falling back through time to live your life in the past. Except when you can see them they're forced to be stone, which is great they can't attack you. But you can't kill stone."

Owen rolled his eyes and muttered something about the words being English but still not making any sense as the rest of them laughed and returned to their own work.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Jack, Martha and the Doctor stood in Roald Dahl Plass looking at the life around them.

"That girl?" He asked and Jack knew immediately who he meant and what he was trying to ask.

"Lucy Smith." Jack said with a smile.

"She was leading the rebellion with Gwen something wasn't she..." Martha asked wanting to confirm that they were all talking about the same person. She had never met Gwen or Lucy but had often seen their posters up. However she hadn't been able to watch the broadcast of Lucy's death as she had been travelling through woodlands at the time. Her contact had told her that the leader of the rebellion had gone out with a bang though, and it was clear the Master wasn't happy because he had doubled the Toclafance patrols for the next few nights and worked people harder than before in an attempt to prove that he wasn't weak, nor was he still partially the child she claimed he was. It was an impressive feat to still be ruining the Master's day once dead and Martha hoped to meet her at one point and say thank you.

"She knew the Master's nickname, she knew who he was and who he used to be." The Doctor said vaguely "He shot her for it but even in that last second. All I could see was her faith that everything was going to be all right and that you would save everyone, that I could solve it. But there was desperation hiding behind it. I'm surprised you didn't see it." The other two could hear the confusion in his voice as to why this one girl would have, could have, known so much and still have trusted him to save them all.

"I was busy." Martha shrugged. "Heard about it though, no one really knew where she got her knowledge from so some of the theories were great. They entertained people almost as much as my stories in the work camps, I think the favourite one was she was an old girlfriend or something. Most people definitely thought she was a Time Lord too."

"Not quite." Jack smirked. "She's entirely human and still completely unique and with a different genetic make up to everyone." He paused, wanting to remember this moment when he knew something that the Doctor didn't.  
"Well go on then." The Doctor prompted knowing what the immortal man was doing, and annoyed that it was working."

"She's from a parallel universe, she'd been at the Doctor Who museum in her Cardiff and blacked out ending up here. It must have been the rift although we haven't worked out how." Jack explained with a slight smile.

"Sorry, Doctor Who?" The Doctor was confused but for a different reason now

"You're her favourite TV program" Jack grinned "and she's one of your biggest fans."

"No?" The Time Lord breathed, Martha just laughed "So that's how..."

Jack nodded.

"She knows stuff about me I haven't told anyone, not since... well." He shrugged, "you know what she told me, just before I jumped onto the TARDIS?" They didn't reply since they knew he wasn't looking for an answer, "She told to tell you that you should love, laugh and enjoy life. And..."

"And..." Martha prompted, Jack blinked and came back to his senses.

"And that she was sorry that she couldn't stop it. Her universe seems to have evolved differently and from what she said, they haven't found any proof of alien life yet but she's sure it's there. "

The Doctor just nodded as he burned those words to memory, he refused to let himself forget about the brave girl who had stood up to the Master in her final seconds and had such faith in him.

"What did she say to the Master?" Martha asked quietly, she had thought that the tales she heard were a case of idolism and Chinese whispers but from the reaction of the Doctor and Jack realised they might have held more truth than she previously thought.

"She said he was jealous of me, that he was scared of the Doc, that he would never kill the Doctor, because in part of his brain the Time Tot was screaming at him-"

Before he could finish the Doctor continued.

"She knew she was going to die and decided to go out with a bang, she goaded him until the very last second even when his hand was around her neck and pushing her up against a wall and when the gun was against her head. She knew the Master's schoolyard nickname and used it, in her final moments to show that she wasn't afraid of him. Or at least not as afraid of him as he wanted."

"Wow" Martha was impressed, "not sure I could have done that."

"No," the Time Lord agreed quietly, "me neither, talk about the amazing things humans can do. Did you realise Jack, she never called him the Master, not once not in any of the broadcasts they managed to hijack, even to his face she called him Magister. It's an ultimate insult on Gallifrey to refuse to use our names like that, when we chose them we made a promise about the people we wanted to be for the rest of our lives and she refused to recognise that."  
"I doubt she knew that in that much detail but knowing Lucy she just wanted to annoy him and wanted to show he didn't have any power over her. I doubt she expected to survive the year."

They stood there in silence for a bit before Jack decided it was time to return to work, he started to walk away and the Doctor called after him.

"Jack... if Lucy ever needs to get away, tell her she's got one free trip to anywhen and anywhere. As a thank you"

"Tell her things tend to spiral out of control, but that she should know that anyway." Martha said with a laugh.

"Will do Doc, and I'm sure she does Martha. After all she even knows that I used to be a model in the Boeshane and my nickname," he smiled in remembrance, "Face of Boe. Anyway, don't be a stranger. Either of you." And with that he walked away leaving the two friends in shock.

**A/N: Thank you so much for ALL of the reviews on the last chapter. I was slightly worried about what people would think seeing as I ended it on Lucy's death. But all the reviews have continued to been lovely so thank you.  
I hope you all had a good Easter**

**See you again next week for the beginning of series 2**

**Rea**

**P.S Please keep continuing reviewing it makes me very happy. I've now had more reviews on this story than any other**


	32. Chapter 32 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Part 1

They were all in the SUV chasing a blowfish driving a sports car when Lucy realised what it meant – Jack was back. She grinned, glad that he was back and at the same time she was sad. Lucy was sure that it meant the wonderful three months she had had with Ianto was over, no matter what he said she knew that he loved Jack and not her. Later today she would have to move back into the spare room or even out of the house entirely and give Ianto back to the time travelling Captain.

She couldn't help but laugh at Gwen asking the old lady if she had seen a woman driving a sports car and as threw drove away she said quietly to Tosh.

"That's a really good way of keeping Torchwood secret." Tosh stifled a laugh and Lucy spoke up louder, "Gwen do you want me to retcon that woman later? I mean..."

"Yeah, sure" Gwen replied not really listening. Ever since that argument they had been civil to each other. There was no doubt of the trust they had in a gun fight or in any kind of fight, but they still didn't get on. As far as Lucy could see she was glad of it, Gwen didn't understand her argument and when she did she too would be broken and as much as she didn't like Gwen. She wouldn't wish that on anyway.

Ianto was putting the bullets into his gun, with one of his arms around Lucy as he did so, Tosh fed information to them all about what they were chasing while Gwen and Owen argued about Owen's driving and children on the road

"Species unknown, detecting high levels of algae."

"Special weapons?" Ianto asked, Lucy couldn't help but be proud of Ianto, since Jack had woken up and gone he had grown into his role as a field agent as well as still running the archives.

"No sign of any." Tosh replied looking back at her monitor.

"Do we need special weapons?" Ianto confirmed

"Jack would know." Tosh said worried.

"Jack's not here." Owen reminded her

"He buggered off" Gwen added

"He'll be back." Lucy said calmly, "Ianto, you'll be fine with a standard Torchwood gun. A shot through the head will kill pretty much anything. Although I've got some heavier kit underneath your seat if you want it."

"What do you know?" Gwen asked her turning round to look at her in the middle back seat.

"I know this story." Lucy replied. "Blowfish straight ahead" She said suddenly and Owen sped up his driving, turning sharply in order to keep him in sight.

"Man the wheel." Owen ordered to Gwen as he pulled his gun out

"Don't you dare Owen!"

"The wheel!" Owen repeated and Gwen grabbed it as he leant out of the window shooting at the car. He hit one of the wheels and they could see the blowfish struggle to keep in control of the sports car. Owen got back into the SUV and continued to drive as though he had done nothing out of the ordinary; in Torchwood terms, he hadn't.

They jumped out of the car all holding their guns.

"Where's he gone?" Gwen asked as the blowfish was no longer there. Lucy was looking at the houses.

"Which house is it?" She murmured to herself, it was things like this she wished she had known, but it wasn't something you tended to know, when they heard the scream they ran towards it. Owen kicked the door down as they ran in and fell into formation.

"Gwen go left, Tosh go right, Ianto take centre, Lucy get the civilians out." Owen called and Lucy thought again how it was a pity Owen hadn't stepped up to take Jack's place when he could clearly handle it.

Tosh scanned it.

"Massive levels of adrenaline, mixed with approximately 3g of cocaine." She lowered the machine surprise written on her face. "This fish is wired."

Lucy moved the family so they were no longer in any danger but there was still the girl that the blowfish was holding a gun to. She ran back into the room once she was sure that they were safe to help Owen with the injured man. She quickly put pressure against the wound with her knee and grabbed Owen's gun which he had thrown to floor in order to be a doctor. The blowfish taunted them.

"So, this is team Torchwood. The teacher's pets, but teacher's gone hasn't he? Leaving the kiddie-kids all alone. Look at you trying so hard to be all grown-up. The doctor, with his hands full of blood. The carer, with her oh-so beating heart. The technician, with her cold devices. So which one of the two left will shoot me, which one has the sharp enough aim? Can you do it, can you hit me. What if you miss and shoot her, what if I shoot her first? Well? Can you shoot before I do, can you, dare you won't you?"

Lucy couldn't wait for Jack any longer and from her awkward angle on the floor shot him, in the shoulder, the same time another shot went through his head. She smiled and looked down at Owen who was looking past her and at the man standing behind Ianto.

"Hey kids" Jack grinned, "did you miss me?"

She looked down at the man and once she was sure that she could relieve the pressure she jumped up.

"Jack!" Lucy ran and jumped on him "I am so sorry, I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry, so so sorry." She hugged him tightly. "Are you ok? Tell me that you're ok, you could go again if you need time, I mean, he has a time machine."

"Lucy" Jack laughed and hugged her back, "I don't blame you, the Doctor knows who you are and when things have sorted themselves out he promises to take you on a trip. I'm fine, I don't want or need a day off, I just want to get back to normal. Ok?"

The girl just looked at him trying to find a hint of a lie in his eye and nodded hesitantly.

"Ok, but if it looks like you're not coping I will personally steal your phone and have him come and collect you."

She stood back and instead of taking her normal place next to Ianto holding his hand she stood further away, more out of the group while the others tried to make sense of what had just happened.

They weren't sure how to act and they all said their hello's before cleaning up the mess and walking back to the car. There was an awkward moment where Jack went automatically to the front of the car. At the silence from the others he decided to laugh it off.

"I'll take the sports car. See you back at the hub." He said before jumping into the red sports car and speeding off down the street.

They were all silent in the SUV, Lucy sat uncomfortably in the middle and decidedly not leaning on

Ianto, who noticed but didn't say anything. He wasn't the only one, Owen caught Tosh's eye in the mirror and knew that she had spotted it as well.

They walked into the hub and up to their stations, Gwen taking control again.

"Tosh are you sure that no one else came through?"

Tosh ran a scan.

"Cross referencing it with the rift activity monitor." She replied "It doesn't look like it."

"Car's downstairs in our car park" Ianto said, "I'll give it back to the owner in the morning.

"Owen?"

"Bio-profile's on screen now. Nothing in his genetic make-up to worry the city"

"Lucy?"

"I'm finding the old woman I need to retcon," she replied looking up from her station to see Jack looking at them all, "I don't think she should remember being asked if she saw a blowfish driving a sports car, especially as she actually did see it and then I'll make sure we deal with the family as well. And the gun wasn't anything special although I'll file it away properly."

"Thanks, Tosh can you add that to the species database? Worth knowing in case we meet it again."

"And we do" Lucy added "I think."

"Ianto, can you deal with the body, Lucy can you help him once you've mind wiped the old woman and dealt with the gun?"

"Sushi?" Ianto offered trying to get his girlfriend's attention but she didn't reply

"Morgue will do fine Ianto" Gwen said instead.

"Got pretty organised without me." Jack said as he watched the scene unfold,

"You left us Jack." Gwen shouted, pushing him back into the wall causing everyone to fall silent.

"I know I'm sorry"

"We knew nothing Jack." Gwen said still angry, "Lucy refused to tell us anything, apart from the fact you'd be back."

"Where were you?" Tosh asked

"Hell" Lucy said walking over to Jack, standing by his side and showing her unwavering support "I could have stopped it, I _should_ have stopped it. I don't know how. But I should have done."

"You sent that file Lucy, you made sure it was forwarded onto me. That was useful enough" Jack replied looking at her instead of the team as she knew what had happened and the memory of her being held against the wall by the Master was one he would never forget. "You were amazing, trust me. I remember even if you don't."

She nodded and he looked back up at the team, as he did so she slid back into her place of comfort, the shadows, glad that she had decided to wear her baggy blue hoodie today instead of her leather jacket as it meant she could hide.

"I found my Doctor" Jack said to the team

"Did he fix you?" Owen asked,

"What's to fix?" Jack replied with a wry smile, "You don't mess with this level of perfection."

"Are you going back to him?" Ianto asked now, and Lucy could only imagine why. She knew this was the point she lost Ianto and made the decision to slide back into the role of best friend instead of girlfriend.

"I came back for you." Jack replied looking straight at Ianto and Lucy held back the sob of pain only through a lifetime of practice. "For all of you" Jack amended

The moment was interrupted by beeping from Tosh's computer screen, "Rift activity" She said checking her computer, "we need to go."

They ran out of the hub and Lucy was able to sit herself so she wasn't next to Ianto, instead she found herself sandwiched between Owen and Tosh, as Jack took the wheel.

Once they had got to the spot that Tosh's equipment was picking up, they spotted the police were already there, the others walked under the barrier no problem. But Lucy stayed back and handed coffee to Andy.

"Thought you'd want something to drink on a cold night. I picked it up before we left. Ianto makes the best coffee in the universe."

"Thanks" Andy replied and she walked back up to the group

"So a murderer on the loose." Owen was saying, "About six foot high if the angles of the bruises are anything to go by. You able to add anything Lucy?"

"He's human and has left." She said,

"Any alien tech involved Tosh?" Gwen asked while Tosh checked her scanner.

"Nothing to suggest it." She replied

Jack stood tall.

"Ok well let's get back to the hub and see what we can piece together."

"Taking charge again" Gwen said as they all started to walk away.

"Well I was hoping for a brief power struggle followed by some naked wrestling." Jack joked as they passed under the police tape.

"Cheers Andy." Gwen said to her old police partner, "you can let SOCO in now and they can eliminate us from whatever they want."

"This another one of your spooky dos is it?" The policeman asked

"Not sure yet, but I'll let you know" Gwen said while walking away.

Lucy could hear Andy mumbling to himself.

"Thanks, Andy. You've been very helpful. Don't mention it Gwen."

She hung back to talk to him.

"Hey, can you let the Super know that we're dealing with it and I'll call her tomorrow some time to discuss it properly? It'll probably be in the evening." He nodded and she rejoined the group, just as Jack's vortex manipulator went off and a hologram of Captain John Heart appeared.

"I can't believe I got the answer machine. What can you be doing that's more important than me? Anyway, you've probably traced the energy shift, found the body. All me, sorry about the mess, bill me for the clean-up" She allowed herself to phase out and instead watched Ianto trying to work out the best way of telling him she didn't mind that he wanted Jack and not her.

She joined them in the cab, that Ianto had called and once more she made sure she wasn't next to Ianto, she was glad he would be happy but she needed to sort out her mental barriers and rebuild the wall around her heart again before she could take the role of best friend.

"Reports coming in of a bar disturbance, it's where I've tracked the SUV to." Tosh said

"Tell the police we're dealing with it." Gwen replied

"Okay so who the hell was that bloke in the hologram?" Owen asked, they all looked at Lucy

"Old friend." She shrugged

"Why didn't he let us go with him?"

"He has dangerous friends." Lucy muttered

"It's typical Jack isn't it? He disappears, he comes back, he runs away again." Gwen complained, "We don't even know his real name."

There was a few seconds silence when they waited to see if Lucy knew but she just shook her head.  
"Or what century he's from" Tosh added.

That one Lucy did know.

"51st."

"He's supposed to be our boss we know nothing about him. Drives me mad." They all agreed and after a bit of silence while they all thought about Jack.  
"More fun when he's around though." And again they all agreed, Lucy only nodding while she looked out of the window at the Cardiff streets going by. "Lu?" Ianto asked trying to work out what was wrong.

"I'm not saying anything. You know the rules, I know the story I stay silent. But um, yeah, it's fun when Jack's around" The cab pulled up and she jumped out, "Well it defiantly looks the place, I mean all the glass outside, gives it away as well as our SUV. Come on then" They all walked in and Lucy stuck to Tosh as much as she could.

Owen took command.

"Gwen, Ianto, Lucy you take the main entrance. Tosh you and me are going for the side door."

They did as ordered and listened as Jack and the stranger spoke.

"Time was, you couldn't get enough of me on your territory." There was silence and then gunshots and the sound of breaking glass. "Alright, everybody out."

"You ok Jack?" Gwen asked as they moved into the room guns out.

"Yes," Jack replied, "I'm fine."

"You've got a team, how sweet." The other man looked at all of them, separately seizing them up, "No blonde though, you need a blonde."

"God, he's worse than Jack." Owen murmured and Lucy could see they all agreed.

"Do you have a team name? I love team names!" He asked mockingly

"Torchwood" Jack replied seriously and they could all tell he wanted shot of this guy as quickly as possible. However Lucy wasn't looking at Jack she was looking at John Heart – and he flinched, there was no doubt about it, he flinched at the idea of Torchwood. Although he covered it up very well.

"Oh, not Excalibur? Blizzard? Bikini Cops? No? Torchwood. Oh Dear."

"Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, meet..." Jack introduced them pointing at each Torchwood member when he said their name.

"Captain John Heart" John said filling the gap. "What about her, do I not get to meet her?" He asked pointing at Lucy.

Lucy smirked at him.

"Lucy Smith and I already know who you are Captain and I know who your superior is as well, although I won't tell."

John flinched and then gave a cold smile.

"I don't have a superior"

"Yes you do."

Jack stepped in.

"We go back"

"Excuse me." John replied glad to be on familiar ground again, "we more than go back. We were partners."

"In what way?" Ianto asked and Lucy was sure she detected a hint of jealousy.

"In every way, and then some."

"It was two weeks." Jack mocked

"Except the two weeks was trapped inside a time loop, making it more like five years. It's like having a wife."

Jack couldn't help but rise to the bait, and Lucy wanted to face palm at how easy it was to rile up her boss.

"Oh you were the wife."

"You were the wife."

"No you were."

"Oh but I was a good wife."

"I bet you were" Tosh said with a faint smile, everyone stared at her and she shrugged, "what don't pretend you haven't noticed. He's cute."

"They're just shy." John replied

"What are you doing here?" Jack said turning serious again

"I was wondering when we would get to that." He pulled back his sleeve and flipped open a wrist strap identical to Jack's.  
"It's the same as yours" Tosh pointed out.

"A little smaller" Jack mocked

"But lasts much longer." John sighed, "Get two time agents together and it's always about the size of the wrist strap."

"Sorry time agents?" Owen asked

"What he never told you about his past?" John asked and Lucy could see the seeds of discontent spread even more around the group.

"Clever move" She whispered but only Jack heard her as Gwen spoke louder.  
"No, he hasn't."

"Aaand, he doesn't need to." Lucy added loud enough for everyone to hear, "With a man like Jack, it's the person he is now that's important. So if we could get back to the question of why you are

here..."

John made the hologram of a canister appear and started to explain.

"So I'm working with this woman, beautiful, clever, sexy, yadda yadda yadda, and we both get shot" Again Lucy could see the story work its magic as the rest of Torchwood started to lower their guns, Lucy just kept hers trained on the rouge time agent. "And as she's dying she tells me about these radiation cluster bombs she'd been working on."

"I don't like the sound of that." Owen said his mind working out automatically what that would mean.

"Exactly, three canisters the contents beyond toxic swallowed up in a rift storm."  
"And ended up here" Tosh finished for him

"Bingo. That's the downside of your city being built on a rift in space and time. Now left to their own devices the radiation will break down the canisters and then infect your people and your planet. They need to be neutralised."

Everyone apart from Lucy and Jack looked horrified at the idea. Jack smirked at him

"What do you get out of this?"

"A dying woman's wish and maybe little Lucy over there could lower her gun like the rest of your team?"

"No chance" Lucy laughed ignoring the slight about her height pulling out a second gun and easily releasing the safety on that as well.

"What she said." Jack said with a smirk.

John decided that the best thing to do was ignore them so he looked at the rest of the team.

"Only problem is I don't know where they are. Hoping local knowledge might help."

Lucy sighed as Tosh replied.

"When we get back to the hub, I can run a city-wide scan on radiation surges and cross-reference that with the rift activity during that time span."

John smiled at her.

"What are you the brains and the beauty?"

Lucy couldn't help but sigh again and roll her eyes as Tosh smiled at the compliment, she loved the Japanese woman, she really did. Only she could be very naive.

"See, between us it's an easy job."

Jack stalked up to John, "We do this, and you get out of here when it's finished. Right away."

John raised to the challenge and lent forward closing the gap between the two Captain's even more.

"Does this mean I get to see house?"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all stood in the meeting room apart from John who was lounging in one of the chairs. Lucy stood behind him playing with her gun as she leant against the wall. Tosh explained what she had found.

"Seven hours ago, we logged a minor surge in rift energy across three locations."

"Simple." John said, "Seven of us, two teams of two and a team of three."

"Excuse me." Jack said only slight annoyance in his voice, "I give the orders here."

"Then give some big boy." John leered back.

"John's right." Gwen stepped in, "Sorry do you prefer John or Captain?"

"With eyes like yours you can call me Vera." He flirted back.  
"What about Wanker? I bet you respond to that, you must have been called it enough." Lucy added, Gwen glared at the younger girl.

"Tosh and Owen, take the north. Ianto and Jack, go west. Vera and I will take the docks. Lucy you stay here and co-ordinate us all via the head sets, you've got good enough with the technology, finally and Owen's only recently completely cleared you for full field duty."

"Oh come on I'm not that bad, it's CCTV and keeping track and control of the headsets. I've been able to do that for a while now. Tosh bought me a cake and everything! And I've been cleared for the past two weeks, I want to be able to go and do my job."

"Not to repeat myself." Jack said with a small smile and Gwen lent across the desk.

"Do you have a problem with that Jack?"

Jack looked back at her, his eyes flickering towards John before going back to her.

"Not at all."

"Now, given the canisters are radioactive, don't open them, eh?"

Lucy shot the leg of John's chair, he span round and glared at her.

"Oh sorry." She said sarcastically, "But if we're so stupid that you think we might open radioactive canisters, accidentally shooting your chair isn't unbelievable. Good thing it wasn't you really."

Jack actually laughed aloud and Ianto smiled at his girlfriend, Owen and Tosh just caught each other's eye and Gwen decided to ignore it.

"All right, let's go."

They turned to leave, but Jack called Gwen back.

"Gwen, a word."

"Ooh, can I watch? He's going to give you all the do's and don'ts. I love that bit."

"You can keep me company," Lucy said kicking the back of his chair "I need to speak to Jack about something anyway. Come on, Wanker."

"Are you going to continue to call me that?" He asked as he got up

Lucy pretended to think about it before nodding, "Yeah, you know what I think I am."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy watched as Gwen walked out of the conference room taking John with her and she walked in.

"How are you really Jack?"

"I'm honestly fine. I'd be better if he wasn't here but..." Jack shrugged, "What did you want to talk about?"

"I was wondering, if John was to block the comms with his vortex manipulator, theoretically, would you be able to stop it happening or tell me what to do if it did?"

"Theoretically?" Jack smirked knowing what she was really asking.

"Oh yeah, only in theory." Lucy replied with a matching smirk, "I mean you _do_ have the bigger wrist strap and I was just interested in what that actually means and why Time Agents always compare them."

"Well as this is a purely theoretical argument, I see no harm in letting you that my wrist strap can override his, and that I can pre-set it to do so. Even better, it would be possible for me to let you know about his attempt."

"Interesting, that technology is pretty damn impressive."

"Well," Jack paused, "this is all just theory but I know it's possible. I must say this been a very enjoyable conversation and with this theoretical discussion you've managed to alert me to a potential security problem. I'll make sure that he can't block our comms, even if he thinks he has."

"Just wondering, that's all." Lucy replied, "Purely asking as I'm interested in what the vortex manipulator does and why time agents care about the size. So just to confirm, it would be possible for him to block our communication, however because you left as the superior agent with a bigger wrist strap it would also be possible for you to make sure it's going to fail, but he wouldn't know that. And it would even let me know if he tries."

Jack started fiddling with his wrist strap as he talked, "Yeah. It'll flash up on your screen. The only one it will block is John, you'll know he tried so you can inform us. But as this is purely academic, that's not going to be a problem."

"Of course." Lucy replied, "Well, time to get to work." She went to walk away but Jack called her back as she reached the door.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for not saying anything to the others" He gave her a genuine smile.

"Why would I?" She asked, "It's you secret, not mine. I only know because I was stolen by the rift and I've never had a life."

"Out of interest, why did Owen pull you from field duty?"  
"Oh, yeah. I forgot you didn't know. Um, the fight with the Roman Centurion and the Neanderthals didn't go as well as I pretended. My back and neck were sliced and the right side of my body was fairly heavily bruised. I mean I'm fine now, it's only a few extra scars." She gestured to her neck and Jack realised that his presumption when he had seen it on the Valiant that she had got it during the year was wrong. "But I was on restricted light duties for a while, it was why Gwen and I didn't go to the Himalayas with everyone else."

"I had wondered why... but after everything else that happened..." He trailed off and she shrugged.

"It's a small enough thing to lose track of, anyway even though the others are being over protective I am actually fine now. If there is nothing else..."  
"No, its fine." He stood up. "The sooner this is done the sooner he's gone."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

As everyone walked across the plass Lucy noticed the flashing signal come up on her screen and spoke into her headset.

"Don't respond, don't let anyone know you can hear me. John thinks he's blocked the signal. So until he's out of your sight as far as you are concerned the headsets aren't working. Jack if you say something about not being able to hear me and someone can make up an excuse so John doesn't think anything is up and that luck is on his side."

"Lucy?" Jack said "you there?"

"No I went on holiday a long time ago." She replied and enjoyed watching them all having to keep a straight face on the CCTV.

It was Ianto who came up with the reason as to why they couldn't hear her.

"Headsets aren't being brilliant currently. I think the background radiation is starting to interfere, we would get better ones but we are currently waiting for the rift to send us an upgrade. OR you can try and fix them later sir."

Tosh couldn't help but smile at how Ianto could say something like that with such a straight face, it didn't help that Lucy was laughing in her ear.

Eventually the team split up into the three pairs and two of them were able to confer with Lucy again.

"Hey guys, right Jack and Ianto you're looking for one that should be at the top of the business tower. Tosh, Owen you are looking for one in an old warehouse. I'm going to put you on separate waves so I can hear you but you can't hear each other. That way if John gets hold of Gwen's he still won't know. Gwen, sorry that you can't talk to me or even hear me but we just can't risk John finding out. I can hear you though, so if you need help I'll be here. I can't tell you what holder that canister is in either, they move around a lot. I can however tell you that you are looking to ones in the west and that it's not too high up but I don't know how much help that's going to be. You'll need to just keep referencing back to your scanner."

"Lucy?" Owen said after a couple of minutes of silence and she was instantly on alert. Bringing up the CCTV for where they were, just going into the warehouse yard, and going into the right wavelength to speak to him and Tosh specifically.

"Yeah?"

"Now that the others aren't listening, are you ok? I mean I know that you knew it was going to happen, but still, Jack being back makes a difference and you've not known anything for some time."

"I'm fine Owen." She said a tad too quickly and she knew that he and Tosh had heard it. "Listen, I just don't like John, as much as I know..." she sighed "The sooner we can get him out of here the better. Just find the damn canister. And yeah, this is the start of my knowing things again."

And with that she pulled out of his and Tosh's private comms link so she could hear everyone.

A few minutes later she heard Gwen moan in pain.

"What have you done?"... "Lucy?"... ... "please..."

"Gwen." Lucy replied pulling up the footage of John walking away, "Listen I'm going to let the others know. He's going in the direction of Tosh and Owen, so I'll warn them and then I'll make sure they come to you the second they can. Once I've done that and checked in with Ianto and Jack to let them know as well I'll come back onto your comm. And give you a constant update of what is happening, breath as deeply as you can and I'll be back in a bit."

As she went to go speak to Owen and Tosh, she heard the conversation that she knew was going to happen between Ianto and Jack. As much as she knew she should ignore it and speak to the others she couldn't stop herself from listening in.

"So I was thinking," Jack said, "a nice meal, a film..."

"You mean like a date?" She heard Ianto reply and she turned his headset onto mute not wanting to hear what he was going to say when Jack confirmed that he wanted to go out on a date with the young Welshman. The only reason she left Jack's on was so she still in contact with them so she would not be letting down the rest of the team.

"Yeah" She could hear the smile in Jack's voice and it hurt more than she thought it would do. "Well I know the nicest Italian restaurant in Cardiff bay that's mainly unknown... ... maybe an evening off, you deserve it" he laughed at whatever Ianto had said and Lucy could almost feel her heart break as she tried to pull herself together, she had known this was going to happen. "Ok so I'll take the roof. By the way, was that a yes, shall I book a table for two?"

She pulled out of the comm line to hear Owen trying to speak to her.

"Lucy? FOR GOODS SAKE LUCY?"

"Damn." She wiped the tears away before they threatened to fall, "Yeah I'm here. Hang on let me put you on the same wavelength. You need to be able to talk to each other at this point, errr... wait a sec... where is that bloody button? Ah! There." She pulled them all into the same comm wave again, "Right, this is Lucy. Jack, Ianto. John is on the loose, he's pulled the lipstick trick on Gwen whose on the floor and pulled a gun on Tosh. Owen are you ok dealing with Tosh?"

Before he replied Ianto joined in.

"Lucy, you there?" She knew he had to act as though he couldn't hear her but she replied anyway. "I'm here, listen as much as Gwen needs help. You need to get to Tosh and Owen first, Gwen needs Owen. Owen?"

"Yeah I'm listening, and that's fine by me. Do you know what was in this lipstick thing?"

"No idea. Jack? You're all on the same wavelength by the way, apart from Gwen. I'll speak to her privately."

"Great joke." Jack mocked and Lucy knew what was happening.

Ianto gasped as he had reached the bottom of the tower and saw Jack fall. "Ianto." She said sternly "You need to move, Gwen needs your help and you can only do that via Owen. Run. For goods sake RUN. Everyone Jack's currently down."

And with that Ianto started running.

"Which warehouse?"

"16" Owen replied, "Tosh is going to be ok, but I'd prefer to use proper stuff back at the hub."

Lucy pulled up the CCTV.

"I need to move. I'm taking the headset but I'm going to keep it on Gwen's wavelength so I can keep talking to her until you get there. I need to move before John gets here, cause I really don't fancy dying which would be bloody likely. Right, over and out."

With that she set the headset onto Gwen's wavelength and pulled away from the desk before moving into Jack's office where she knew John's wrist-strap would not be able to register her. Jack had spent ages making sure his office was one of the safest places in the hub apart from the lower levels, which would survive even if a bomb hit the hub directly.

"Gwen? I'm back, listen help is on its way. John killed Jack by shoving him off the roof of the HSBC building, Ianto was on his way to get Owen and Tosh cause you need Owen's help and Owen is currently dealing with a Tosh who had a bullet go through her stomach. But that wasn't what you wanted to hear..."she sighed, pulled herself together and started to talk again. "Trust me though they will get to you in time. You know what Ianto is like, he won't let anything happen to you. You are going to get back to your fiancée and plan the most amazing wedding, where Torchwood will just be a word and not who you are. You'll be Mrs Gwen Williams. Shit." She had been looking out of the office and saw John walk in with his gun held as though to shoot her. He looked disappointed when he couldn't see her immediately and started a scan on his wrist strap before doing anything.

"Lucy?" Gwen's voice came through the headset and she sighed.

"Told you they would get there in time." She replied with a small smile, it was at times like this where the mutual dislike between them was unimportant. "Listen" She said seriously "John's just walked in, he's scanning for me but I'm in Jack's office. Don't know where he is, I'm on your secure line..."

"Wait a sec" Gwen was evidently talking to the others who were still on the general line, "Right Ianto's just talked to Jack, he can be in the hub in a matter of minutes, same here."

"Right well you might want to hurry up. I don't plan on leaving the office until I know he's not going to shoot me. I don't fancy dying."

**(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)**

**A/N: Thank you to all my lovely reviewers for the past week and all the new people who said they had been reading but reviewed for the first time. I'ts brilliant to know the people are enjoying the castle I'm making in the Torchwood sandpit.**

**I'll see you next week for the second half of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang where there is a Thing.**

**Rea**


	33. Chapter 33 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Part 2

Less than a minute later they walked into the hub and towards John who was in the med bay, Lucy slipped out of Jack's office. They quickly all surrounded the med bay and brought out their guns, the sound of the safety on five guns being turned off was what alerted John that they were there. He had been busy talking to the body of the blowfish and working on something at the desk

"Okay" He stood up slowly, "Pretty and resilient. Is that even fair?"

Gwen spoke for them all.

"Maybe you didn't realise, you can beat, shoot, threaten and even poison us and we keep coming back, stronger every time."

Lucy was dying to make a comment about how they were like Hyrda, cut one head off and another two grow in its place. However she knew that it was not the right time so kept her mouth shut and both guns trained on the man in front of her.

"Well I think you should know, your boss is splayed out on the..." John tried. But, at that moment Jack walked in and leant casually against the rail, looking down at him. "Pavement." He completed in shock, "Now that's impressive. Seriously you can earn a fortune in the Vegas galaxies with an act like that."

Jack laughed, but there was no warmth in it.

"Go on how does it work?"

Jack just shrugged.

"I can't die."

"No but really..." John tried and they could all hear the waver in his voice.

"Not but really, you can't kill me. No matter how many times you try, I can't die. Ever." He smiled and started walking down the stairs into the med area, the team lowered their guns as he walked past them before instantly bringing them up again.

"Hey, buy what does it cost you? Every time you have to drag yourself back here how does it feel? All that pain and trauma." Again Lucy wanted to say something but it would make Jack appear weak so she kept her mouth shut even though she knew that John's words had got through. Jack was now standing right in front of the person he had once called a friend who continued to ramble. "Plus you are reborn into this god forsaken place. I pity you."

"These people," Jack looked at his team before looking back at John, "this planet, all the beauty you could never see. That's what I come back for."

"Well goody on you."

"What's in the canisters?" Gwen asked  
"Come clean time Captain." Owen added

John looked at them all before sighing.

"Yeah alright. That woman I told you about had herself an Arcadian diamond. It's the rarest gem in the Damascene Cluster. Just when I got my hands on her, she only generates her own personal rift storm."

"Clever woman." Lucy smirks, "making sure that you couldn't get your hands on it."

Jack just held his hand out to take the pyramid that John was playing with, he accepted it with a raised eyebrow.

"God I hate technological geniuses."

Tosh hid her pain but lowered her gun.

"You said this was a dying woman's request."

"Yeah." John shrugged, "she was dying. I shot her."

"Wanker." Lucy said simply before walking round next to Tosh.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked, letting some of his amusement slip into his voice.

"Trying to work out the best angle to shoot him and get the least amount of blood on you."

"You can't shoot him quite yet, Lucy but I will let you know as soon as I change my mind."

"I thought my luck had changed when I found out it had ended up here." John said simply before becoming more animated again and full of charisma. "So I'm thinking 50-50? Even split, good deal. Or if anyone fancies an orgy?"

Ianto just rolled his eyes and Lucy and Tosh both had to look away from each other so as not to laugh.

"Lucy," Jack said, and Lucy stopped trying not to laugh at the serious tone in her bosses voice. "Would you be so kind as to escort this gentlemen to the cells? If he fucks you around you can shoot him wherever you want although I don't really want him dead. Once you've done that join me in my office."

"Sure." Lucy shrugged, "triangle of pain it is." She gestured with her gun to make sure he knew what she was talking about and all the guys gave a small wince at the thought "He doesn't really need it anyway." She walked down the steps and placed her gun in his back. "I think you'd better start walking, don't you. _Captain_."

John raised his arms in surrender and walked where Lucy directed him into he ended up in the cell next to Janet and Bob, who had mated a couple of months ago – Owen was hoping that one of them would become pregnant as he was interested in how they procreated.

"Don't worry about your neighbours, they may be loud but they are very nice." She shut the door. "Byye" and walked away.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The rest of the team were discussing what to do when Lucy walked into Jack's office.

"What do you think we should do?"

Lucy sighed trying to work out the different possibilities and outcomes of her telling the truth before she shrugged.

"I know what's going to happen from one of the possibilities and I hate to say it, as in I really hate to say it. But I don't think I can be involved in this conversation – I'm emotionally attached to an eventual outcome, that happens due to whatever decision happens here. I'll follow whatever you say but I can't be a part of this process."

Jack nodded.

"Go and get on with some work then. If I remember correctly you've got an old woman to find and retcon. I'll send one of the others to go get him and you when we've decided what to do."

"Sorry I can't be more help."

"You're doing the right thing instead of the easy thing," Jack replied, "Never apologise for that."

Lucy shrugged and walked out of the room and back to her desk to find the CCTV footage of when they stopped that woman last night. She couldn't believe it hadn't even been 24 hours since Jack had come back, in fact she worked out mentally it had been about 14 hours.

It didn't take her long to find the woman once she had actually started looking and soon she had the address of one Rosie Fruin who had moved to Cardiff 38 years ago and not moved house since. She'd go visit her the next day under the pretence of a police officer just checking everything was ok and put some retcon into her tea.

Just as Lucy decided what she was going to do and was busy memorising the address – 15 Cresent Lane - Ianto came to get her.

"We've decided what to do, Jack's going to get John now and then we are going to get him to open it."

"Thanks Ianto. I've found a nice old woman who I'm going to go visit tomorrow. There's been a bit of trouble in the neighbourhood so good old Constable Smith is just going to do the rounds and check up on it all."

"As a good constable should" Ianto smiled at her, and Lucy ignored the stab of pain that came with it as she knew that he was no longer hers. She made the decision to deal with it all later when she had time and when she was alone.

"Right, I'll come join the motley crew again then." Lucy said, freezing her computer so John couldn't see anything when he came back upstairs. She doubted he would care much about it anyway but it was standard practice to do so when they weren't at their desk.

They all stood around Jack's office, their hands resting on their guns while Jack lounged in his chair and John stood in front of the desk.

Jack looked at him for a long while before speaking.

"Open it." He passed John the triangle who started to lower it on top of the pyramid

"This should give us the location of the diamond." It started beeping and a hologram of a woman appeared from it. "There she is."

"The woman you murdered." Gwen commented coldly.

"_You travelled several galaxies for this. Well done_." The hologram spoke.

"Thank you gorgeous." John replied impatiently.

"_Except there is no diamond_." The hologram continued and Lucy grinned.

"Like I said earlier, clever woman."

"What?"

"Only this." The pyramid opened and folded over the triangle

"No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

A light came out of the pyramid that formed a cylinder

"What do you mean there's no diamond. It's all about the bloody diamond."

Spikes appeared in the cylinder that floated in the air that zoomed towards John's chest and attached itself there, red lights appeared and it started beeping

"What's that?"

"_It's an explosive device which will latch onto the DNA of whoever killed me. It'll detonate in 10 minutes."_

Ianto pulled out his stopwatch automatically to get the ten minutes as accurately as possible.

"I really like this woman." Lucy said with a mixture of a smirk and a smile.

"_It can't be removed without exploding, so don't bother trying. Goodbye, Lover."_

"No wait!" John called

"_See you in hell_." The hologram finished before disappearing.

"She can't be serious? 10 minutes?" Gwen asked, and Lucy couldn't help but think she was being typical Welsh.

"GET IT OFF ME!" John shouted.

Ianto spoke calmly with a small smile.

"Actually, 9 minutes 50, 49, 48..." he lifted the stopwatch for everyone to see. "Always at the ready."

"How big is this explosion likely to be Jack?" Gwen asked and Lucy was glad to see she was now quite happy for Jack to lead and not to be the leader herself.

"That technology, that size, big." Jack replied raising his eyebrow at the time agent.

"So we should really get him out of the city." Owen commented

"Would probably be good." Lucy pointed out.

"9 minutes 37" Ianto added. Everyone apart from John was smiling but Lucy knew that would all change in a bit.

"You've got to help me. Please." John begged Jack.

"Actually if I remember correctly the agreement you made with Jack was as soon as you got the canisters you would leave. Straight away, so he doesn't have to do anything."

Jack leant over his desk and asked John a very simply question which made the scene descend into madness.

"Why?"

John punched Jack and then grabbed Gwen's wrist attaching her to him using a pair of handcuffs.

"LET HER GO."

"Back off."

Lucy tried to keep her gun on John but Gwen was moving so much that she couldn't be certain that she would hit the conman and not her colleague – which of course was John's aim in the first place. He was pulling Gwen out of the office backwards and Gwen was shouting at him.

"Jack help me. Lucy for god's sake shoot him."

"Can't. Not without possibly hitting you too, and there is still the bloody bomb." Lucy replied.

John raised up their attached arms and held the key in his spare hand.

"What have you done?" Gwen asked trying to get her hand free.

"It's hypersteel, impermeable, deadlock sealed." John replied "no way to undo them, unless you have... this key." Which he put into his mouth and swallowed.

"You are unbelievable!" Gwen said grabbing his other arm and started shaking him and then put her hand around his neck.

"And yet you still find me strangely attractive." He replied with a smirk. He turned to face Jack again, "Now, you had better find a solution pronto. Or she'll be blown up with me."

"Would shooting him stop the DNA trigger?" Owen asked,

"In what world does killing a man stop their DNA Owen?" Lucy asked sarcastically shoving her gun back into her holster.

"What are we going to do now team? The orgy is still on offer by the way." John said with a smile. "Especially now I've got the cuffs out."

"9 minutes, 4 seconds." Ianto said worried as they all tried to work a way out of this situation.

Although Lucy knew how it ended she knew that she couldn't be the one to bring it up as an idea, it had to come from Gwen and she could see the exact moment Gwen thought of it.

"Tosh, have you perfected that rift prediction program?"

"Pretty much." Tosh replied confused

"What?" John added

"Anything in the next few minutes?"

Everyone in the room worked out what Gwen was getting at, "Gwen, no way." Jack said

"What's she talking about?" John asked and Lucy edited her thoughts about everyone understanding.

"If we are in the rift when that disc explodes, the city will be safe."

"How does that save us?"

"It doesn't" Gwen replied still only looking at Jack.

"8:32, 31..." Ianto said starting to panic.

"You're bluffing." John said and Gwen looked up at him

"Try me."

"You know there are times like this where I almost like you Gwen Cooper." Lucy said

"Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment."

"Well it was meant as one." Lucy smiled, "I'll tell Rhys you were a hero."

Gwen smiled back at her but Tosh spoke before she could reply.

"The car park where he arrived, the crack in the rift is still active up there."

"Well that's where we're going." Gwen grabbed John and pulled him towards the cog door.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" John shouted.

"Why don't we just cut off his hand?" Ianto asked as he and Tosh followed their team mate and Captain Heart.

"That would activate the bomb." Tosh replied.

Lucy saw Owen pull Jack back and decided to stay with them instead of going with the others.

"We might be able to confuse the disk." Owen explained to Jack as Lucy went straight to the fridge and started pulling out the blood samples.

"Here you go Owen, and get on with it. I might not like her but I really like Rhys and I don't want to have to tell him his fiancée is dead."

"Does it work?"

"It does on TV and my DNA is from a different universe should help even more." She replied, "That's the best I can offer."

"It'll work for me." Jack replied, taking the blood Owen gave him and mixing them.

Owen poured it into a needle.

"Trust me," he smiled at his boss and friend, "I'm a damn good improviser."

"Never mind about that, we know it will work now we need to get to them before they go through the rift. So speed is of the essence."

Jack couldn't help but grin.

"We have a sports car currently in our car park."

"Well then," Owen added, "what are we waiting for?"

Jack drove the sports car like a man possessed and they only just got into the car park in time. Jack jumped out stabbed John in the heart with the needle.

"30 seconds." Ianto told them.

"What's he doing?" John asked

"Owen, Lucy, it's not working." Jack shouted. "Why is it not working?"

"I don't know." They both replied.

"What are you...?" Gwen asked.

"Trying to confuse the disk."

"Jack! Do something!" Tosh said panicking

"12 seconds." Gwen pulled John up.

"I've got to go Jack."

Jack sighed and went to go help Gwen pull the other man up and as they did so the disk fell off,

"5" Lucy ran forward

"4" and picked it up

"3" she threw it into the rift.

"2"

Just in time, the disk was in the rift with a second to spare which gave them enough time to run away from it so as not to be affected by whatever was going to happen.

The rift seemed to explode and when they got up from where they had been thrown to the ground it was dark.

"What the hell?" Jack said as he looked at his watch.

"Jack, what's happened?" Gwen asked

"It's gone back to the moment he came through." Lucy replied, "Back to the beginning of the night."

"Now we've got to avoid ourselves, great." Jack sighed.

"Time displacement, it makes your tongue tingle, doesn't it? It's lovely."

"What was in the syringe?" Gwen asked

"Torchwood DNA," Owen replied, "DNA samples from the six of us, fused and injected into his heart. Temporarily corrupted his DNA coding, confused the disk."

"You mean there is a bit of all of you inside of me?" John replied.

"Better than bits of you and Gwen all over the country." Lucy replied, "Gwen you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." The other woman replied. "Thank you Owen."

"You're welcome." He smiled at her.

"I want you gone." Jack said to John.

"We'll we've got to deal with this first." Gwen pointed out lifting her wrist reminding them all of the handcuffs.

"Shouldn't be too difficult should it John?" Lucy said tilting her head with a smirk.

John smirked back and put his hand into his mouth and pulled out the key.

"Old Artesian trick." He said, "Keeping it in the lining of the throat. It has a lot of uses."

"You had that the whole time?" Gwen phrased it as a question but they all knew it wasn't one.

"You were my passport to survival" he said as he unlocked the handcuffs, Gwen just pulled her arm back and punched him. Hard.

Jack laughed, and Ianto just commented.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Their captain walked up to John and coughed with his hand out, John frowned but pulled out the wrist strap which Jack put back onto his wrist.

"Defiantly bigger."

"Oh," Lucy said deciding to twist the knife even more, "do you want to know what I learnt today John? The bigger wrist strap means it can overpower yours so if for example you tried to block the comms, Jack could just preset it to make sure that's not possible. And all because his one is bigger than yours fascinating isn't it." She smirked.

"If you need a new team member..." John tried.

"No." Jack replied sternly

"Really, I could..."

"No."

"But..."

"No." This last one was said softly but sternly and John gave up, "if you go now you can harness the residual energy from the rift."

"Listen..."

"Goodbye."

"Ok." John leant forward and kissed Jack before walking back to wear rift was. "Oh, by the way." He said as the rift started swallowing him, "I meant to tell you, I found Grey."

They all walked forward to stand next to Jack and Gwen asked him.

"Whose Grey?"

Jack shook off the shock before replying.

"It doesn't matter. Let's go back to work."

"I'll get us a hotel." Ianto said already searching on his phone to find one close by, "that way we have no chance of meeting our selves."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto got the key cards from the receptionist and thanked her before walking back to joining the group still unable to catch Lucy's eye and getting worried because of it.

"Right we've got three rooms. Owen, Jack" he handed them the card, "487, I couldn't get all the rooms together at this short notice, so Gwen and Tosh are on the second floor, 239." He handed Lucy the key for their room, "Lucy, we've got room 537." Once the key was in her hands she ran towards the lift, as he wasn't expecting it and because she was a quicker sprinter than him, by the time he had got to the lifts, the door of the one she was in was shut.

Stairs.

He ran to the stairs, which were close by and started to run up them as quickly as possible. Praying that the lift would be stopped before it reached the fifth floor hoping to be able to catch up with her. No luck. By the time he reached the right floor Jack had joined him and they both noticed her hoodie as she turned a corner. Although they both sped up they were too late and saw the door of the room her and Ianto were supposed to be sharing slam shut.

Ianto banged against the door waiting for a reaction, he could hear Lucy sobbing inside.

"Lucy please let me in." He stood in the doorway, his hands on the door frame and his forehead resting on the piece of wood that separated them. "Please Lu"

"Go away" She replied, he was grateful she'd said something. At least it meant she was listening and he could work out what was wrong.

"Lu, just tell me what's wrong" He begged.

"Go _away_ Ianto" Came the reply again.

Jack tried.

"Lucy?" He said through the door, this time the reply was the sound of something being thrown at the door. A pillow probably. Hopefully. At least it wasn't a bullet.

"Piss off Jack."

Jack looked at Ianto and Ianto nodded, as the rest of the team appeared.

"Jack's going Cariad." Again, something was thrown at the door and the sobbing continued. "Please tell me what's wrong."

There was a few minutes of silence and he was going to try again, but he could almost hear Lucy trying to pull herself together as the sobs quietened down.

"I'll move my stuff back into the spare room later." It wasn't what he was expecting and was thrown by it

"Lu?"

"I'm fine Ianto. I'll be your best friend, and I'll even look into getting my own flat. It's not like I can't afford it with the wages we get. So that means it won't be awkward with us living together."

"Don't break up with me." Ianto begged as he slid down the door in shock, "Please don't break up with me"

The rest of Torchwood decided that they should leave the couple to it, and slipped away although they weren't sure if Ianto noticed.

She didn't reply but forced her sobs to calm down, she always knew this was going to happen she just hadn't expected how much it would hurt. Once she had her tears under control to the point she was able to ignore them rolling down her checks got up and walked towards the door, she sat down again only now she was leaning against the door.

"It's fine Ianto." She tried to reassure him. "You'll be happy, and I'll still be your friend but we were being foolish. You were never mine, I just borrowed you for a bit. I'll even take your shift on Friday night so you and Jack can go to that Italian place he mentioned. I'm sure you'll love it, just like he promised."

"Lucy" She could hear the tears in his voice and couldn't help but feel bad, but she knew that it was needed.

"No need to explain Ianto. I always knew, and besides. I was in the hub co-ordinating everyone. I heard it on Jack's comms."

"Please Lu," Ianto tried again. "You've got it wrong. I told him no and that I was with you. He recommended that place for _us_. Don't do this to me."

"He'll fix you Ianto, and in a few months or so you'll realise I was right. You deserve the universe, not some fucked up girl from a different one. God, I don't even know why I'm acting like this, I should be able to keep my emotions under control."

"Don't do this Lucy. Please listen I turned him down. I don't want Jack, I want you. Don't do this to me. You're not just a fucked up girl, please Lu." He banged on the door again feebly.

"It's fine Ianto honestly." She said "He'll fix you and when you look back at your life, I'll just be a really good friend that you dated for a bit before Jack came back."

"Please Lucy. Don't do this, don't break up with me. You said you wouldn't break me, you promised you would do everything you could not to break me."

"He'll fix you Ianto" She repeated, "I'm not breaking you I'm just pushing you harder than you wanted."

"Lu" Ianto mumbled wishing he could get through to her, "I want you. You fix me. Don't, please Lucy, don't."

"You don't get it Ianto, you deserve the universe." She repeated, "Please go and find it. It'll be fine later, I promise. You just need to realise that."

"You are my universe" he tried one more time.

"Please go, Ianto" She replied and he slumped against the door not saying anything. He couldn't believe he'd let one of the best things to ever happen to him slip through his fingers.

She pulled the pillow close so she could stifle the sound of her tears in it. She hated what she had to do, but she knew that Ianto should be with Jack and if this was the only way he would be happy, then so be it. Her happiness meant nothing. This wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been stolen by the rift anyway.

Ianto didn't know how long he stood leaning against the door, wishing Lucy would just open it. But after a while he turned and walked away, ignoring the tears that continued to fall.

He walked down the stairs keeping his head bowed so no one could see the state he was in and knocked on the door to the room he had got for Owen and Jack.

The rest of Torchwood had decided to convene in the guys' room and were talking about what happened, while filling Jack in on what Lucy and Ianto were like as a couple – in a word, adorable. They tried to work out what was going on when someone knocked on their door. As Tosh was closest, she went to open it.

"Ianto" she breathed and gestured him in and onto a chair. "What happened?"

"I've lost her" he said simply, not having the energy to say anything else.

"Why?" Gwen was confused, Ianto and Lucy were perfect together.

Ianto just looked up at let his gaze land on Jack.

"She thinks I deserve the universe and not some 'fucked up girl from another one'. Oh and thought Jack was the only one suitable. Because we were together in a TV version of our lives." They all looked at Jack but he just shrugged, "I might have had a chance, but she heard you on the comms earlier. Didn't hear my reply, she's even offered to take my shift on Friday so I can go on a date with you."

"But you said no." Jack was confused, "Said you were quite happy with her."

It was Tosh who understood.

"She would have turned Ianto's comm off though. She's never thought she was good enough for Ianto. Lucy will have decided that Ianto was going to say yes, and she didn't want to hear it."

Ianto nodded and the tears started to slow down.

"I could get another key from reception" Owen offered, "that way you can at least get into the room."

Ianto shook his head.

"I'll get another room. She asked me to leave."

"You can sleep in here." Jack said suddenly, standing up "I don't need to sleep, and if I do I'll just take the floor."

Ianto didn't have the energy to argue and moved over to the bed Jack had just vacated. He took his shoes off and curled up on top of the duvet, seemingly spooning around the pillow as though it was Lucy.

Tosh looked at the team and could see they all wanted to go and talk some sense into Lucy, as much as she wanted to get them back together she knew it was not the best idea.

"Don't." She said quietly but they all looked at her. "She'll realise she was wrong when Ianto doesn't get together with Jack, although it will take some persuading. I'll let her move in with me for a bit. If they've not sorted it out after a month or so then we'll try pushing them together. You know what Lucy's like, she's nothing if not stubborn. Both of them, are. You'll see them tomorrow trying to act like they're fine and nothing's happened. Ianto will be embaressed enough that he acted like this in front of us."

Gwen nodded.

"Ok. They've got two months or so to sort it out."

They all agreed and changed the subject , but always glancing at Ianto who was looked upset, even in his sleep.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Soooooo, that just happened. My friend Icestar has drawn a picture of the break up which I adore and you should all go see: ****icestar663 . deviantart art / Lucy-and-Ianto-Break-Up-314433271 (just get rid of the spaces) and then once you've done that you guys should read her doctor who story on here (same penname) where a Hanna falls into series 7 of Doctor Who.  
Also I know I make it look like I like it when Lucy is upset, I really don't. But she's stubborn and it takes a lot to change her mind.**

**See you on Friday for Sleeper**

**Please review**

**Rea**


	34. Chapter 34 - Sleeper, Part 1

**A/N: Sorry I'm slightly late**

"Thanks Tosh." Lucy said as Tosh pulled down the spare duvet from the cupboard and passed it over. It was the day after the events with Captain John Hart and the break up between Lucy and Ianto. Once they had caught up with their own time line, everyone apart from Tosh and Lucy left. Lucy, because she didn't want to bump into Ianto and Tosh because she wanted to check her friend was ok and offer her a place to stay. Lucy had tried to argue but Tosh had refused to let her say no. "I could have just stayed at a hotel or something."

"Don't be silly." Tosh replied, "You can stay with me until... ...well until this is sorted. There is no point arguing about it Lucy Smith and you know it."

"I know" She sighed as she quickly put the duvet cover on. "But I promise that I'll go looking for a flat or something as soon as I have some time off, might go pick up some of my stuff soon. It's um..." She pulled her hair-tie out of the end of her plait and tied it again so she had something to do with her hands. Lucy took a deep breath and sat down now she'd turned the sofa into a bed. "...not like I don't know when he's not in the flat. I, um... I'm going to do my best to make sure this isn't awkward at work Tosh."

"I know." Tosh said, and curled up on the edge of the sofa. "You know Lucy, no one would blame you or think badly of you, if you just apologised and went back to Ianto." Lucy froze. "He'd take you back Lucy, I _know_ he would."

"I broke up with him, Tosh. Kind of means I don't want to go back to him." She shrugged, trying to pretend that she meant it.

"He doesn't want Jack, Lucy. He wants _you_."

"Just stop it Tosh, please. I'll stay here with you a month or so. Just until I find somewhere else, things'll calm down at work and everyone will forget that Ianto and I had a brief fling, just like Owen and Gwen."

"There's was just sex though, you and Ianto. It looked like the real deal."  
"With someone who isn't really real." She scoffed.

"Who's not real? Us or _you_?"

"I'm tired Tosh." Lucy said purposefully not answering the question and grabbing the pillow. "Can I just go to sleep? I'll probably go in tomorrow before you wake up. I've got loads of paperwork to be getting on with, I want to make sure Jack has all the relevant information on the past three months."

"You're changing the subject."  
"I need to sleep." Lucy insisted although they both knew that she was lying.

"Fine, if I don't see you tomorrow morning I'll see you at work. Help yourself to cereal and food in the cupboards." Tosh said getting up and walking out of the lounge into her bedroom.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Tosh what happened here?" Jack asked as he stopped the SUV outside the crime scene.

"Two IC1 males. One fatality, on seriously wounded after a fall from a fifth floor window onto a police vehicle." Tosh replied as they all got ready to jump out. Owen went straight to the man on the stretcher.

"Bloody hell. Has he been stabilised?" He asked the paramedic, looking at the bag full of IV fluids and the wounds on the burglar's body.

"Gwen, Owen, go with him to the hospital. See if he says anything. Interview the husband and wife while you're there. Tosh, Lucy, you come with me and we'll have a look at the scene and see what we can find." Jack ordered and they walked past the tape into the house, where an officer was waiting for them. Lucy's face fell when she recognised the Policeman as Anderson, someone who was completely dull and not a fan of Torchwood.

"Might be one of yours." He said as Tosh started scanning the room. "Fairly unusual blah blah blah. Don't know why I bother asking anymore."  
"No, neither do I. So why don't you do us all a favour and leave the room?" Lucy wasn't completely rude to him, but she wasn't trying to be polite either.

"If you could just wait outside." Jack started to walk Anderson of out the room but when he reached the door he turned back round. "In my opinion the husband did it. He was looking for trouble, expecting to be burgled."  
"Really?" Jack tried to get him out of the room but he stubbornly stayed put, trying to show off his knowledge to the 'famous' Torchwood team.

"Yeah, look. No other reason I can think of for keeping sports equipment in the bedroom." Anderson pointed at the bloody cricket bat on the floor.

"Oh, you should come round to my house for a game of hockey sometimes." Jack said suggestively.  
"Or you could piss off and leave us to do our jobs and stop coming up with wild theories before you have all the information" Lucy said with a smile, while Anderson was in shock Jack was able to push him out of the room and shut the door on him.

"Making friends?" Tosh teased them.

"Not really." Lucy replied. "He's an idiot of the highest order."  
"Before Lucy annoys every member of the police force perhaps you could tell us what you've found?"

"Well, no glass inside, so it was definitely broken out."

"Police say the stab sounds were caused by some sort of long narrow blade."

"And no one could call a cricket bat long and narrow. So what were they stabbed with?" Lucy added "Nothing else in the room could have done this."

"Husband was unconscious." Tosh was talking through information they had in the hope that it would help them make a connection. "And the wife probably weighs less than I do. I can't see either of them doing this."  
"No." Jack agreed. "You and Lucy can pack a mean punch despite of your size but something like this, maybe not. But then again, when you fear for your life you'd be surprised what you could do."  
"But not like this, not without any of the tech in the archives anyway or without any form of weapon." Lucy added forcing a grin. "If I could get something from Ianto..." She faltered. "Well I'm sure there's something in there that I could use. But um... there's nothing in here that stands out as alien tech."  
"My scanner's not picked up on anything." Tosh agreed and Lucy was glad that she was ignoring her slip up.

"Ok well, Tosh run a proper in depth scan. Lucy, you get the pleasure of talking to the officers and see if you can find anything else out. I'm going to make sure that Owen and Gwen keep an eye on both suspects and the victim. One of those two did it, we just need to work out how."  
"Errr Jack." Lucy said following him out of the room.

"If you're going to complain..."  
"No." She said quickly. "Well yes I don't want to talk to them but I will. I was just going to say that I know what's going on, um, yeah. It's not my favourite episode or anything so I can't give you direct quotes but well..."  
Jack sighed.

"Great, well thanks for letting me know. It's not going to get you out of talking to the officers though, in fact it means you'll be able to sift through the rubbish and find that one speck of gold."  
"Thanks." Lucy smirked, "thanks a lot Jack. What did I do in a past life to be saddled with _Anderson_?"

"Murdered a puppy." He responded glibly. "Now shooo, I'm going to call Owen."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Tell me everything." Jack said pulling the material off Beth's head. The last time Lucy had been in the interview room she had snapped at Suzie, this time she was equally certain that the woman in the chair was the killer. However this time she was also aware that Beth wasn't at fault, which made her feel slightly uncomfortable about the whole thing.  
"Where am I?" Beth replied, her fear of the whole situation obvious. She had been sedated at the hospital and brought straight to Torchwood with a sac over her head. It was something that would scare anyone, especially someone who had been burgled only a few hours ago and whose husband was still in hospital. "Where's my husband?"  
"He's safe."  
"What do you mean safe? What have you done with him?"  
"Nothing yet."

Lucy and Gwen stood silently behind Jack, allowing him to take the lead as they were both aware that not only was he good at this he was the most intimidating of the group. Gwen had agreed to play the role of good cop whilst Lucy had decided to go for 'undecided cop' or 'slightly grey morality cop'

"Tell me what happened in the flat Beth." Jack said leaning over the table, looking even more intimidating. "It had to be you or Mike, so how did you do it?"

"You can't treat people like this. I've been burgled, attacked."  
"You'd be surprised at how we are allowed to treat people." Lucy said, "Look around you Beth. You're not in a police cell, we just want to find out what happened. Because you and Mike are in a much better state than the people who tried to attack you."

"If you're charging me with something, don't I get a lawyer, a phone call?"  
"We're **not** the police." Lucy repeated. "Don't have to charge you with anything. So why don't you tell us what happened. We're honestly just trying to help."

"She's right. We don't have to charge you with anything, so they'll be no lawyer, no phone call. Just us and this room for as long as it takes. Now!" Jack shouted. "Tell me what happened!"  
"I told her. And the police." Beth was obviously scared now, "Please I don't know anything."

Gwen moved to sit on the table and opened the file.

"Captain, maybe you should go and get some fresh air." Lucy said. "We'll be fine in here." Jack looked at Gwen who nodded.

"Fine, but I'll make sure that there is someone watching on the CCTV at all times. I'm going to find out what happened to those men." With that he stormed off and out of the room. Beth looked relieved but still scared about what was happening as Gwen started to put the photos of the wounds and the two burglars on the table.

"Look at them for me please Beth." She said softly, Lucy knew that Jack would be watching from above through the one way glass with the rest of the team. She could also imagine/remember the scene with the flirting between him and Ianto. But ignored the stab of pain at the thought of it, because it was good, the two men should be together - Ianto deserved the best and although Jack wasn't the best with 21st Century relationships and the labels attached to them, it didn't mean he wasn't able to love Ianto, just that he wasn't always able to show it. As Gwen spoke again Lucy pulled her mind away from Ianto and Jack's inevitable relationship and back to what was happening in the room.

"The second man has just died in the hospital. I was there 'Keep her away from me. The woman in the flat'. Those were his dying words. We need to know why Beth, we need to know what's going on so we can help you."

"I don't know why he said that. I never touched him." Beth whispered, trying not to look at the photos but not able to stop herself.

"Are you covering for Mike?" Lucy asked. "No one would blame you if you were."  
"NO!" She shouted in pain, "No, nothing happened. I don't know what you want." The lights turned off and both Torchwood agents looked at each other. Something was obviously going on with Beth.

"Beth." Gwen said softly. "We know these men attacked you and your husband. Now if you fought back, people will understand, it was self-defence."  
"We've even got the record of your phone call to the police, we know that they started it." Lucy added.

"I promise." Beth said shaking her head. "I promise I have no idea what happened to them. All I know is that it wasn't me."

"Ok," Lucy nodded. "Ok we're getting somewhere and right now I believe that you know what you're saying to be true. Doesn't mean it is true, but means that you won't tell us anything else."  
"I'm saying the truth." Beth tried again.

"I've just said that I believe you, but the logic of the problem disagrees." Lucy sighed. "I need some fresh air. I'll be back in a bit."

She walked up the stairs and out of the interrogation room where the rest of the team were waiting for her, instead of automatically walking over to Ianto, Lucy forced herself to stay near Jack.

"What do you think?"  
"You're right, she definitely believes what she's saying. Owen said the light thing happened at the hospital as well, so he's going to run some tests."

"Ok, well I wasn't joking about needing fresh air. I'm, err..." she caught sight of Ianto who was just coming out of the kitchen area holding a tray full of mugs, she could see the signs that he hadn't been sleeping well and that he was trying to pretend everything was ok "going outside for a bit. Jack can you make sure Ianto does some more training in the range? He's only just been properly allowed into the field, but he's not spent enough time in there the past three weeks, I didn't want to bring it up but..." Jack looked over to where she was refusing to look.

"No problem. I mean you could talk to him yourself about it."  
"Well you're the leader." Lucy was trying not to fidget as Ianto was obvious waiting before he had to walk over to them, her promise of trying to not make it awkward at work was failing. "It might sound better coming from you. I know you've only been back two weeks... but I could hardly ask Gwen to mention it could I? And I did but..."  
"But then you broke up with him because you're stupid and scared." Jack interrupted  
"No. I mean, yes I broke up with him but... Dammit Jack can you just talk to him for me?"  
"Sure." He shrugged "What do you want me to say?"  
"Just make sure he's up to date with all his weapons training, go and spend some time with him to improve his results, I don't care. I just don't want him to be forced to stay behind again!"  
"So you do care about him still." Jack goaded her with a smell telling smile on his face.

"Fuck you Captain." Lucy muttered tiredly as she sagged, the fight going leaving her as she knew that Jack wouldn't let up on this. "Yes I care about him, but I'm not who he's supposed to be with. So just for once in your long long life can you please just do as I ask without any stupid comment. _Please_."

Before Jack could say anything, and because she had spotted the pity in his eyes, she pushed herself away from the wall and walked out of the hub, neatly going round the workstations so she wouldn't have to bump into Ianto.

Lucy walked along the bay to a small coffee shop, bought herself a cake and started a slower walk back looking out across the sea, trying to work out where everything had gone wrong. Over a year ago she had arrived in this world, Ianto had even bought her a 1st Birthday cake to celebrate, and although it was difficult to begin with she had coped. She had let Suzie die, knowing that Gwen was going to replace her and bring her back to life. Every time she had seen a 'Vote Saxon' poster, she would have to remind herself that the problem would be solved and it would be ok, but it didn't make her feel better about allowing the Master to rise to power. Existing in this 'fake' reality, or rather one that had been seeping into the minds of people when the lines between the worlds started fading, was something she had only day-dreamed about. But living it, living was hard work and she had to go and fall for Ianto, someone she knew had/will have a boyfriend.

Lucy had promised to herself that nothing would come from her crush, it would stay just that and she would make sure that Ianto got together with Jack. But she had tried that and somehow it ended with him kissing her and all her plans going out of the window. Really she only had herself to blame for this situation and the tension in the hub, and she couldn't just fall back into her old ways and hide from everyone because Jack would notice and forcibly pull her back out of the shadows and into the limelight. Plus she had grown up and moved on from that, she didn't want to hide away from the others any more, it was lonely. Now she had friends, she wanted to keep them. She knew that although it would be possible to go back to that existence, she was now aware of exactly what that would mean and what she would be giving up.

She finished eating the cake, pushed all thoughts that weren't about the job and what she could remember about the episode to the back of her mind and walked back into the tourist office and the hub. Back towards danger and an amnesiac alien masquerading as a human. If nothing else she could hardly complain about being bored at work, unlike the time she spent in the shop before she came here.

When she got back into the hub Owen was pulling a pair of gloves on, evidently ready to start running a few tests on Beth who was strapped to the chair.

"Good of you to join us Lucy. Come to see some real work get done?"  
"Want to see some proper shooting later?" She shot back.

"Nah, I've got other things to be getting along with, girls to meet that kind of thing."

"Good for you, now how about you get that 'real work' done."

"Ok," Owen said picking up a needle. "We'll start with a blood test, nothing to worry about just a little..." She flinched at the sight of the needle and Lucy was glad it wasn't her in the chair, she had got over her fear of needles from all the blood Owen took from her every month and the regular medical check-ups, but that did mean she liked them. "needle. She's almost as bad as you were Lucy."  
"Don't worry Beth." Lucy said trying to keep the woman's attention on her instead of what Owen was doing. "He's actually a very good doctor."  
"Thanks." He said, moving to stab her with the needle and then lifting it in shock when it broke.  
"What?" Jack asked

"Needle snapped"  
"Haven't you got a nurse to do this?" Beth asked Gwen, as Owen went for another needle.  
"Let's just get these tests done." Gwen replied. "He's a doctor, it's ok." Owen tried again and once more the needle snapped, he held it up to show the others then picked up a scalpel.

"What are you doing?" Beth asked, scared.

"Bare with me." Owen said as he brought it down on her arm, trying to draw blood. They all watched as the scalpel broke as well. "When was the last time you were in hospital, Beth?"

"I don't remember." She stuttered. "I don't think I ever have. Why, what's wrong with me?"

"Well any operations, check-ups?"  
"No nothing."

"When was the last time you felt ill? You had a cold? Anything?"

"I don't think I ever have. I take a lot of vitamin C."  
"Hmmm..." Owen wasn't impressed and threw the broken scalpel back onto the table. "Hell of a lot I reckon."  
"Ok Beth, you make light bulbs blow, we can't break your skin. What planet are you from?" Jack asked from where he was watching, leaning over the rail looking into medbay.  
"Wha?... Earth."

"Stop wasting our time." Jack shouted. "We know you're an alien."

"There's no such thing as aliens."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was Tosh who spoke first when she saw what Jack had got from the locked storage in his office.

"You said we weren't allowed to use that again."

"It's just a mind probe." Jack replied, annoyed. Lucy hadn't been at Torchwood when it was previously used, although she had heard the story before.

"Remember what happened last time we used it?" Ianto said.

"That was different." Jack argued. "that species has extremely high blood pressure."

"Oh right, their heads must explode all the time." Lucy tried not to laugh at how matter-of-factly Ianto had said it and at Gwen's shocked face.

"Jack you can't do this. What if you're wrong? If she is human you'll kill her." The Welshwoman argued, as Ianto sat down in the chair  
"I'm not wrong. We have to find out what she is."  
"Take it easy Jack." Tosh warned. "Stop at the first sign of trouble."  
"Or the first sign of exploding." Ianto added, and then accompanied it with a mime.

"Stop being stupid Ianto." Lucy said with a small smile.

"Oh so you're talking to me again then." Ianto replied, stopping his mime and getting out of the chair. It wasn't said in a harsh way, but everyone else stopped what they were doing and stared. "It's only been three weeks."

"Errrr I'm gonna go get Beth." Lucy said awkwardly, "maybe we shouldn't mention the exploding thing in front of her, might scare her a bit." She walked out of the main area as quickly as she could without running. Once she was out of sight, she sagged against the wall.

"Come on Lucy." She said out loud to herself. "pull yourself together. It's your choice, Ianto is obviously already getting over it and that's good it means he can get together with Jack. Calm down and sort yourself out!" She pushed herself up, rolled her shoulders for a bit of confidence then walked down to the cells to retrieve Beth.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"You sure this is safe?" Beth asked as they strapped her into the chair and connected the mind probe to the system.

"Yeah." Gwen nodded, looking slightly concerned as she played with her necklace.

"It'll be fine." Lucy shrugged. "Might hurt, but won't do any permanent damage."  
"As long as you don't kill me or anything." Beth tried to laugh off her fear as a joke but it fell flat when none of them smiled.

"You'll probably get dehydrated during the probing." Ianto walked over with a water bottle and a straw, she drank and then waited.

When Owen was ready he once more looked to Jack for confirmation that they were going to do this. Tosh got into position at the computers, ready to read the information. Jack nodded and the doctor put it on her head.

"We're all set." Tosh informed them and Jack stepped forward to explain exactly what was going to happen to Beth.  
"The probe drills down through your consciousness, so if there is anything hidden it'll pop to the surface."  
"Will it hurt."  
"Yeah."

"Your bedside manners rubbish."  
"Lucky he's a Captain and not a doctor then." Lucy pointed out.

"You should see his manners in bed." Gwen said with a small smile. "They're atrocious. Apparently, so I've heard."  
"And you know that how?" Lucy asked spinning round to look at Gwen.

"Oh they are." Ianto said and Lucy's heart sunk as she plastered a smile on her face. "I remember this one time..."  
Jack coughed loudly, and Ianto just shrugged and stopped talking. Lucy missed the look of disbelief that Jack sent Ianto and focussed on Beth.

"You ready?"

"I suppose."  
"Ok, well we'll do this slowly. Tosh can control the probe, our lovely doctor will make sure you're not in any danger. Jack will barrage you with questions while Gwen tries to reign him in. And, Ianto... he'll have more water ready when you need it. If everything goes as you think and hope it will, we'll find nothing and you can go back to your husband as soon as possible."

"Ok." Jack nodded at Tosh. "Let's go."

The electricity from the probe could be heard and Beth almost instantly started showing signs of pain that quickly became yells.  
"I'm human." She said before shouting again.

"Safe." Owen said after checking the computers

"Who killed the burglars Beth?" Jack asked

"I don't know...I..."  
"Safe."  
"What planet are you from?"

"I'm human! Oh, God, it hurts. Please. Please stop!"

"Go deeper."  
"Are you sure?" Tosh questioned Jack's order, glancing at Beth who looked to be in agony.

"Do it!" Their boss shouted and Beth's yells of pain became more frequent.

"Vital signs all over the place but still safe."  
"Getting electromagnetic build-up again." Tosh warned.

"Who killed those men?"  
"I don't know... make it stop."  
"For God's sake." Gwen shouted, unable to watch any more. "Come on Jack!"  
"Go deeper"

"Safe."  
"Deeper!"

The hub lights started flashing again as Beth started shaking in pain.

"The electromagnetic pulse is going off the scale."  
"I don't know how much more of this she can take."  
"Jack. We've got to stop this."

Beth sagged in her seat as the lights stopped flickering, her head fell forward and it appeared that she had lost consciousness apart from Owen's readings. Beeping could be heard and while they looked around to try and find the source they watched as Beth sat up straight and her arm seemed to open up. It decidedly wasn't human.

"Oh my god." Gwen breathed and stepped forward to take a closer look, Jack gently put his arm up to push her back.

"I wouldn't get that close. Toshiko, what happened?"

"Hit a buried compartment. Locked away. She couldn't have been aware of it."

"Who are you?"

The reply was in an alien language so none of them could understand it, but Jack seemed to be expecting that.

"Where are you from?" The reply was the same

"How do you like my boots?" It didn't change. He picked up a scanner from Tosh's desk and started scanning Beth's arm.

"What's she saying?" Gwen asked.  
"Name, rank, serial number. And that's all she's going to say."  
"How do you know?"

"Cause I know who she is and why she's here. Lucy?"  
"Yeah." Lucy nodded. "You're right."  
"How many?"  
"Don't know." She shrugged. "I think I remember two others, maybe, but I can't be certain."

"Switch off the probe." Jack ordered, Tosh pressed a few buttons and then gave confirmation.  
"Off."

Beth's arm went back to normal and she sagged forward again, only this time she was awake and 'human'. She took some deep breaths as she tried to steady herself and take control of any remaining pain.

"You weren't lying. That really hurt." She said as she clenched and released her fists. Owen took the helmet off. "Did you find anything?" Every member of Torchwood looked away and at each other, trying to work out what to say. Something that Beth picked up on straight away.

**A/N: Thank you so much for the amazing reviews for the last chapter (you guys really are the best.) Like I said at the top sorry it's been uploaded slightly late but I've been really busy and only really remembered what day it was at about 12:30 when it was already Saturday.**

**Interestingly only one review for the last chapter seems to think that Lucy did the right thing breaking up with Ianto so he could be with Jack. I hate to disappoint but that plot lines going to be going for a while.**

**Also next weeks chapter will either go up early Friday (UK) or not until Sunday (Australia) cause on Friday I am getting on a plane and flying to the other side of the world for an indeterminate amount of time. It should be awesome but might mean I don't update every week cause I won't have as much time to write. (I've got enough to keep me going till August though and once I've done that chapter enough till November)**

**I'll hopefully see you again next Friday and please remember to review it makes my world a happier place and I always try to reply**

**Rea**

**P.S I've just fixed the repeat problem - thanks to Momochan77 for letting me know**


	35. Chapter 35 - Sleeper, Part 2

"She's a sleeper agent." Jack explained when they were all sat in the conference room and Beth was back in her cell for now. "It all clicked when I saw the implant."

"Sleeper agent? Who for?" Owen asked

"No one knows very much. They don't leave survivors. Official designation is Cell 114. They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence, sometimes for years, watching. Until their ready to take over."

"Ok that's creepy." Gwen said with a small shudder.  
"Clever plan though." Lucy pointed out. "It's like when cops go undercover but on a massive scale. It'd be like giving a cop a recording device and then getting rid of all of the memories that said they were a cop. That way they can't get caught."  
"So Beth doesn't know?"

"No." Jack said. "If we're lucky she's the first. They send an advance guard to gather intel, like Lucy said. Give them false memories so they blend in. She has no idea she's not human. Her real-self must have taken over briefly, killed the burglars, self-preservation."

"Told you she did it." Owen muttered

"The point is," Jack continued. "by the time they attack they know every single thing about the planet. Tosh?"  
"The implant gathers information, normal X-rays don't show it. She's projecting a false image."  
"Um, I have a question. How does the implant gather information and by bringing her into Torchwood have we just given them all the information we have on the system?"

Tosh paled a bit at the implication of what Lucy was asking.

"Um, I don't know. Maybe, Jack?"  
"I have no clue. It's definitely possible though. For now though Tosh continue with what you found out."

"Well all the pictures on the screen are taken from Beth's implant, it's got all this information stored on it." She turned a laptop round so they could see the screen. "This is a force field generator. It creates an impervious layer above the skin, just a nanometre thick. That's why you couldn't get the needle inside her."  
"Right, well..." Owen changed what he was about to say when he saw photos of Torchwood flash up on the screen. "Don't know if this answers Lucy's question but they certainly know about us."  
"They know more about this place than I do." Ianto wasn't impressed and thumped his hand on the table. "Nobody knows more than I do, even Lucy with all her stupid future knowledge knows less than me."  
"So my knowledge is stupid then?" Lucy asked.

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it."

"What if there's more of them?" Gwen asked pulling them back on track before Ianto and Lucy could start shouting at each other, even though they wanted to see the argument they were also aware that wasn't the right time. "What are we going to do about this?"  
"For a start," Jack answered. "I think we should tell her."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Beth watched the video on one of the screens outside her cell

"Can you turn it off please?" She asked, her voice shaking and Lucy turned the image off. Beth was running her hands up and down her arms and looking at them as if they suddenly didn't belong. "So I killed those men?"  
"Yes." Jack spoke plainly

"And I'm a... a mass murdering alien."  
"Yes."  
"My whole life. All my memories they can't be fake. I know I love Mike and he loves me."  
"He does and you do." Gwen said stepping up to the cell door so she could look properly at their prisoner.

"So what's real?"  
"You both are, you both fell in love. That happened." Gwen was trying to reassure Beth but Lucy couldn't help but think it was flawed and naive. "Do you feel human?"  
"Yes." Beth nodded, scared.

"Then you _are_ human. What makes us human? Is it our minds or our bodies?"  
"Apart from the fact that biologically you're an alien of unknown origins." Lucy had to interrupt, it wasn't fair to Beth giving her false hope like that. "Feeling human is one thing, right now you have a human mind and maybe a human soul, who knows, but biologically... there's nothing we can do."  
"What happens when the disguise comes off? I want to have kids one day. Is 'feeling human' enough for that?" Gwen didn't respond to Beth's question and looked away. Lucy and Jack looked straight at her though and she knew what the answer was. "Can you fix me? Can you make me human?"  
"No." Jack said "Eventually you'll activate. Your real memories will come back and Beth will disappear."  
"What do you mean activate?"  
"Once you gather enough information, you'll send it back home. And start the invasion."  
"There must be something you can do. All this technology, everything you do here. You can't keep me locked up next to that _thing._" Gwen reached for her but remembered about the glass, and dropped her hand. "Are you going to kill me?"  
"No." Gwen said instantly, causing Jack and Lucy to stare at her. "No of course we're not."

"Have you killed other aliens?" Beth asked, catching the look that they had sent to the Welshwoman.

"Only when we've had to." Gwen said the same time that Lucy answered  
"Yes."

"When it was the last resort, kill or be killed." Gwen clarified. Beth took some deep breath trying to process the information.

"I wish this wasn't happening. I'd never know. I'd just live a normal life."

"Until the day of the attack." Lucy said  
"I _**won't**_ do anything."

"Characters in a show have no say about what the actor does once the shows over."  
"So I'm just a character now."

"Yes." Lucy replied. "Beth, no matter how much you try to ignore it, this is happening. The human part of you is just a pretence. You could have lived a happy life with your husband if the burglars hadn't picked your house but one day it would have ended and you'd go back to being what you were as soon as that implant had got enough information. You would have no choice about it."

"I'm not that person." Beth argued hitting the cell door in anger  
"I'm sorry" Jack said. "But you are".

"What the hell was that?" Gwen asked Lucy as soon as they shut the door to the cells behind them. "All that character in a show stuff?"

"I was telling her the truth." Lucy responded annoyed. "Telling kids that Santa and the tooth fairy exist doesn't make it so. You can't tell Beth that just because she feels human she is. That's bullshit Cooper and you know it!"  
"I was trying to make her feel better."  
"By lying to her? Telling her that everything's going to be ok. If you were right and feeling human is enough then why were you lying to her like she's a child. At least Jack and I were actually showing her some respect."

"Respect! You scared the living daylights out of her. I'm sure she thought that you were ready to shoot her in that instant."  
"Oh no. I wouldn't dare, because you went and told her that **of** **course** we weren't going to kill her. Why would we ever think of that?"  
"She's human!"  
"SHE'S AN ALIEN PRETENDING."  
"QUIET!" Jack shouted at them, shutting the two women up instantly. "Gwen you can't make those promises. We've got a job to do. Lucy, shouting at her like that doesn't help anyone. We'll talk about this properly with the rest of the team."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"We can't keep her."

"We could freeze her?" Tosh suggested. "Use the alien cryogenics until we find a way to stop her memories from returning."  
"Freeze her?" Gwen didn't look very impressed with the idea. "For how long?""  
"For as long as it takes, at least she'd still be alive."  
"Her implant would still gather information." Jack pointed out.  
"Can't we deactivate it?" Lucy asked. "Is it possible?"

"I can isolate the transceiver and fry it in an EM pulse. Right now it's not sending or receiving anything. I've checked it five times on every frequency."

"Won't that let them know we're onto them?" Owen asked, pausing in his task of spraying the plants with water.

"No. If we freeze her, she'll never activate and they'll never know."

"What about her husband?"

"She'd have to disappear completely." Jack said, making up his mind to go with Tosh's idea. "No goodbyes."

"We had a holiday booked." Beth said as they walked her from the cell to the medbay. She had agreed to their plan, not that Jack would have stopped it if she had disagreed but it was nice to have anyway. "Nothing major, just a holiday away." She gasped in pain and leant against the wall. "Those men... Oh my god, those poor men! What's happening?"

"The real memory is coming back, destroying the fake human persona." Jack explained helping her back up again. "The sooner we do this, the better for everyone."

"Beth, Beth come on." Gwen said and they started walking again.

"Promise me something," Beth said. She was lying down strapped to a stretcher as Owen finished prepping the technology for the freeze. "If you can't figure out how to keep me human. Then don't wake me up. Just turn the machine off"  
"I can't make that promise." Gwen replied.  
"Ok, you then. I bet you could." Beth looked over at Jack, who was standing above the medbay looking down at his team "so could you, I reckon." she added looking at Lucy who was sitting on the steps. "if you needed too and he wasn't here."  
"I don't know." Lucy replied.

"Just don't let me hurt anyone." Beth said.

"You have my word." Jack said seriously and Lucy nodded, she knew how this was going to end but also knew that right now Beth was still human and this was important to her.

"It's funny. I've always had this nagging feeling, like I didn't fit in. Just so desperate to have a more exciting life."

"I think we all have that." Lucy said getting up off the stairs and moving so she stood next to Gwen. "Every human on the planet thinks that they don't fit in at times, and wants more. It's part of what keeps us going, what makes us human."  
"Except I'm not."  
"No," Lucy agreed. "Your body isn't. But right now your mind is."  
"I'm going to hit the transceiver with an EM pulse." Tosh said walking over to them, holding a piece of machinery that Lucy had never seen before.

"It won't hurt you." Gwen said reassuring Beth.

"It's going to take out the force field too I'm afraid." Tosh warned her. "So I'll have to do them both."  
"Do it" Beth said, looking straight up and not at any of them. "I don't want to be invincible."  
"After that I'm going to sedate you." Owen explained "Then we'll freeze you."  
"It'll be like... just going to sleep."  
"Yeah, except much colder." Lucy stifled a laugh at Owen's sarcasm and Gwen glared at the pair of them.

"Bye Gwen, Lucy."  
"Bye."

The machine in Tosh's hand buzzed.

"Done."

Owen injected the sedative and followed it with the injection to freeze her, Lucy stepped away from Beth's body and left Owen to it. The rest of them did the same but Gwen was determined to stay the whole time.

As Gwen and Ianto came up from the mortuary, the lights in the hub started to fizzle out and the siren went off.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Jack asked as he walked out of his office

"Oh shit!" Gwen said as she brought up the CCTV of the empty storage space where they had put Beth's frozen body.

"What's happened?" Lucy called over

"Beth's gone."  
"Fuck."

"I thought she was frozen?" Jack asked, looking down at Owen, who had been cleaning up the medbay.

"She was." The doctor shouted back defensively. "All her vitals were at zero."  
"Checking systems, command history."

"What did she do? Is it a virus? Lockdown?" Jack was worried.

"No," Tosh looked up from the screen. "She just turned off the lights."  
"What is it with her and light bulbs?" Owen said angrily.

"Well it's a damn good way of worrying us without actually doing anything." Lucy pointed out.

"She went through the tunnels." Tosh informed them.

"Time to change the locks again" Ianto said dryly.

"She knew everything about this place" Jack started pacing up and down. "It was all in her arm. The tunnels, layout, security codes..."

"So why didn't she use any of them? She could have blown us sky high"

"But she didn't."  
"I swear, she was frozen."

"Tosh. You switched off the transceiver?"  
"Yes."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Well, I was until you asked. Unless it was another false image."  
"Hang on, hang on." Owen interrupted them as he realised something. "everything about her was a lie. All of her vital signs were a false image. She can fool the equipment. She can tell it what we're expecting to see, so she gets scared and it projects and increased heart rate. We try and freeze it and it does the opposite."  
"Simulating that much information would need a huge amount of energy. No wonder she had a big electromagnetic field"  
"Well that's why the lights blow every time she gets upset. It's not about scaring us Lucy, it's because her body needs the energy to produce the image we're expecting."  
"So what's she doing?" Lucy asked. "Did we activate her?"  
"She couldn't be activated." Jack replied. "If she was we'd all be dead. We took her off the network. She has some other agenda."

"What if it's the human who has the agenda and not the alien?" Lucy asked. "We've been treating this like the alien is in control. But her mind is still human..."

"The husband." Gwen said suddenly. "She'll have gone to see her husband before going on the run."

"We've got to go. Gwen, Lucy - SUV now!" Jack shouted, they grabbed their coats and ran to the car park.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They ran into the hospital room too late, Beth was screaming for help and her husband was bleeding badly and struggling to stay conscious.

"Beth!" Jack said, he and Lucy both had their guns pointed at her.

"It was... just an accident." She said as her arm started to return to normal and the blade disappeared. "I just wanted to say goodbye" She collapsed to the ground and Gwen caught her, holding the device that Tosh had used earlier to deactivate the implant in her arm.

"She's got a weapons system built into her arm." Jack warned her while Lucy covered Gwen with her gun making sure she was safe to get close.

"Clear." Gwen said running the device over her arm and deactivating it.

"It's getting worse." Lucy said looking over at Jack. "We may not have activated her but the people in her cell probably know something has happened."  
"Right now we need to contain her fast, she's losing control. Once we've done that we can worry about the rest of her cell."  
"Come on Beth, let's get you back." Gwen zipped up the rucksack

"No." Beth cried looking over at Mike.

"Come on." Lucy ordered grabbing her 'normal' arm.

"No, no, no."  
They carried her out while the nurses and a doctor ran in to try and save Mike's life.

"Tosh, we got her. It's over, we're on our way." Jack said through the ear pieces as he and Gwen carried Beth out, her arms round their shoulders as Lucy opened the doors for them and kept the path clear.

As he said that the windows exploded and they fell from the weight of the blast.

"You ok?" Jack asked Gwen.

"Yeah. I think so, yeah." She replied.

"Lucy?"

"Um." She used the wall to push herself up. "I'm fine."  
"What about your back? Your neck?"

"Both feel fine." She raised one hand to her neck and when she saw there was no blood checked her back. "Yup, no sign of blood, although I'll be a bit bruised, being thrown into a wall hurts though."

"What the hell was that?"  
"A petrol tanker." Tosh replied, having obviously been checking. "Looks like someone wanted to take out the M4 link road, for some... No, it's not the road. There's an underground fuel pipeline. Special supply for the military. They use it in emergencies."  
"Not any more." Owen said as Lucy helped the others up and they started making their way through the hospital again, this time it was a bit more difficult as they had to get round debris and running patients, nurses and doctors "I've got a report coming through. Patrick Grainger's been murdered. Stabbed several times in the chest and once in the head. Sound familiar?"  
"Why would someone want to kill him?" Gwen asked.

"He's also the city coordinator" Ianto informed them. "Takes charge of the cities in case of major emergencies. Has all the security protocols"

"How do you know that?" Owen asked  
"Ianto knows everything." Lucy replied instantly. "Thanks Yan, so he should be in charge now then?"

"No problem and yes. He's the one who's done all the drills." Ianto said, his reply slightly forced as Lucy realised that in the confusion she had forgotten that she had broken up with him.

"They're putting all the pieces in place." Jack said. "Lucy you take over from me and help Gwen. Tosh? Owen? Help me, it's starting, it's happening right now."

There was a high pitched sound and the ear pieces cut out, Lucy pulled hers out of her ear and shoved it in her pocket.

"Tosh?" Jack asked before realising he wouldn't be able to get through and turned back to them. "It's not just her, Lucy's right she's part of a cell and they've activated. Lucy how many episodes do we have left."  
"This is only episode 2 of series 2."  
"So we make it?"  
"In real life? I have no bloody clue."

"Still gives us hope. But it's happening now. Tell me how to stop it!" He shouted at Beth.

"It can't be..."  
"Think!"

"Beth, look at me." Gwen said turning the woman so she was facing her. "Look at me! How do we stop this?"

"I don't know." Beth whispered "I'm cut off from the cell." her voice got louder as she gained in confidence. "I don't know what the mission is."  
"How many in the cell?" Lucy asked. "Do you know that?"

"No."  
"What about your implant?" Gwen asked. "How did you get out of Torchwood?"  
"The technology is part of me. I can switch it on. I can use the tools"

"Can you do that now? Can you trace the other cell Beth?"  
"No." She whined as she shook her head. "What if it goes wrong?"

"If you don't, Beth, other people will die. Not just Mike."

Beth moved her hand to over the implant in her arm and breathed heavily before speaking.

"There's one left. I can track him."

"Let's go!"

They picked Beth up and pulled her into the back of the SUV. Jack drove for a minute before pulling into a car park.  
"Hang on I've got an idea." He jumped out and ran into the building and was out again less than a minute later with some gaffa tape and pulled something out of the storage box under the driver's seat.

"What's that?" Gwen asked.

"CB Radio." He replied. "They knocked out the phone lines, it's time to go old school. They can't stop radio waves. Well, not yet anyway." he finished fixing it to the SUV and shut the door.

"Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?"  
"_Thank god_." Tosh picked it up. "_What happened?"_  
"There's a cell. It's active." Jack replied "Four including Beth, two are dead. We're tracking the last guy now. If we can get to him before he does anything we can stop this."  
_"What can I do?"  
_"He's heading for an abandoned farm, just outside the city." Jack said as he pulled the SUV out of the car park and started to drive. "I need to know what's out there."

"He's nearly there we need to hurry." Beth warned them.

"Already hurrying thank you."

"What happens when it starts, Beth?" Gwen asked

"How do you get in the heavy weapons?" Jack added

"I don't know. I think we just have this arm thing." Beth said

"So how do you manage to take over so quickly?"  
"Jack," Lucy said trying to drop hints as heavily as possible. "They have the perfect inside man, they know everything we know."  
"...Including where our weapons are."

_"Oh god."_ Tosh's voice came over the radio again.

"What is it?"  
"_The mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. 10 of them. No body's supposed to know, not even us"_

"Fuck." Lucy swore

"That's how it starts."

"No heavy weapons," Jack summarised. "they don't need any because they can use ours. We left the key under the doormat. All you need it to walk in and take over."  
_"Please tell me you can stop this."_

"Going as fast as we can." Jack reassured her. "If we don't, we won't feel a thing. We're all at the centre of the blast radius."

_"That's comforting."_

"Come on! Have a little faith, with a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?"

They drove up to the farm, the barrier had already been knocked down so Jack continued to drive as fast as he could. Towards the sound of gun shots as Lucy added checked hers over, ready to use as soon as they got out.

"Have we thought this part of the plan through?" Gwen asked as they drove closer, they could see him now. His white shirt was covered in blood but he kept moving as though nothing was wrong with him.

"This isn't going to be pretty. Brace yourselves."  
"How are we going to stop him Jack?" Gwen asked again as Jack didn't slow down.  
"Like this." Jack drove straight into him, and for a second Lucy had a flash back and saw Becky's body flying into the air until she blinked and it was over. The middle aged man was lying on the ground behind them, still moving.

Jack turned him over and pointed his gun at him, Lucy stayed further back with two guns pointed at him as well.

"Gwen? Gwen!" Jack shouted as the man's arm turned into a full alien arm with a long blade on the end and stabbed him in the stomach. Gwen opened up the rucksack and pulled out Tosh's device again so she could turn the implant off.

"It doesn't matter." He said, not removing his arm from Jack's stomach. "You can't stop us. We know what your weakness is. We know who you are, Jack Harkness. We know all about you and Torchwood. We got a lot of information before you switched her off."

"Do you know about me?" Lucy asked, not lowering her gun when he turned his head to look at her.

"Lucy Smith, you're in charge of their weapons and you have no one to miss you."

"So you don't know much about me at all then." Lucy said shooting him, she knew it wasn't going to make much of a difference but she felt better for it.

"You'll be factored into our plans."  
"Gwen can you hurry up with that?" Lucy said, shooting him again. "This kind of shooting practice is a bit dull and Jack would prefer not to die."  
"Nearly there. I've got it. He's done"

Jack pulled himself off the blade and stood next to Lucy.

"Don't bother moving. Your transmitters dead and so's your forcefield. Looked like you didn't get any of the important information anyway."  
"You're lying."  
"Oh yeah?" Lucy shot him and this time it penetrated his shoulder instead of breaking and falling down a nanometre off his skin. "If you knew anything of importance you wouldn't second guess the captain."  
"And you'd be a lot more worried about our weapons expert, you'd want to torture her for information." Jack said shooting him too.

"Can we not tell him that he wants to torture me?" Lucy requested, "Let's not give the nasty aliens any ideas."  
"Ok." Jack shot him one more time. "Now when are the others coming?"  
"They're already here." The man said spitting blood before opening his hand and showing something that was beeping. "I won't let you take me."  
"Run!" Jack said and they did so, getting far enough away that when the timer reached zero and the bomb blew up they were safe.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They were back in the hub, Lucy sitting on the sofa, pointedly not looking at Ianto - i.e. looking away from Ianto every time someone looked at her- when Gwen went up to go get Beth. They were ready for the cryogenics again.

Tosh had reconfigured the scanner so it didn't show the false images. Ianto walked past her into Jack's office and she tried to busy herself with the paperwork that this week's 'adventure' had caused. It turned out the doctors had been able to save Mike, so she was starting the process to get him put in witness protection. He needed to be kept safe, she'd made up a reason for the file saying that his wife had discovered something and been killed for it - no need to make Beth look bad, as a human she was a good person and had been helpful to them, the problem was she wouldn't stay human for much longer.

"I won't let you freeze me." Beth shouted, causing Lucy to look up from the laptop. She shut it quickly, standing up and pointing her gun at Beth who had her full alien arm out and across Gwen's neck. At seeing her instant reaction and at Beth's shout the rest of the team ran over, gun's also out and trained on their target, although Tosh had to pull hers out of the bottom draw at her desk, something Lucy mad e a mental note to rectify. "I'll kill you all." Beth continued

"Let her go!" Owen shouted. "Let her go!"  
"No! Wait, wait, wait, wait, don't shoot." Gwen shouted down at them. "It's a trick. She won't hurt me! She won't hurt me."  
"Move away from her now!" Tosh yelled running up some of the stair so she could get a better shot.

"Everybody calm down" Jack ordered. "Beth? You don't want to do this. Let Gwen go."

"You're human Beth. Right now in this instant you are human." Lucy said. "Forget all the bullshit I was saying about biology. You are _human. _Don't do this._"_

"I'll kill her first. Then all of you." Beth's voice was shaking a bit and they could tell she was scared. "Then the rest of your miserable species."

"Beth please." Gwen begged. "They will kill you. You have proved to be better than that. You helped us stop the invasion. Lucy's right, you're human. Please Beth." Beth shook her head and said something, but no one apart from Gwen could hear her. She pulled her arm back, moved to stab Gwen and they all shot, they had no choice. A couple hit the railings, one hit the wall, but two hit Beth - Lucy got her on the stomach and Jack hit the left breast. They all shot again and this time most of the bullets hit their target. Beth was dead. Owen ran up to check on Gwen and Lucy and Jack ran after him so they could keep him covered with their guns.

"She wanted you to shot her." Gwen said loudly. "She wanted to die human."  
"We had no choice." Jack replied

"And she knew it." Lucy added. "Suicide by cop."  
"She used her last shred of humanity to do this." Gwen sagged and her voice betrayed her tiredness, with the day, the situation and the whole world.  
"She just wanted to make it easier for us." Jack said putting his gun back in its holster and Lucy did the same. "We couldn't take the risk. I'll tidy it up, the rest of you go home."

**A/N:** **Thank you for the wonderful reviews, they continue to make me smile**. **I will see you next week for the first part of To The Last Man, I will still put it up on Friday but as I'll be in Oz it could be early saturday morning for everyone else.**

**Thanks again and please don't forget to review**

**Rea**


	36. Chapter 36 - To The Last Man

**A/N: Hellooo from Australia, enjoy all of To The Last Man, which is short enough to give you in one go.  
Also just to warn you in advance there is more swearing than usual in this chapter.**

"Jack can I have a word?" Lucy asked the Captain quietly as she walked up from the range. It was two months since he had returned from his travels with the Doctor and she had yet to bring up the year that never was. Tomorrow they needed to wake Tommy for the day and Lucy wanted to talk to him before it got too busy and they didn't have time. It was also something she had been thinking about for a while and wanted to get it off her chest.  
"Sure." Jack said, he could see it was serious so walked over to his office and Lucy followed behind him and shut the door. "What can I do for you?"

"What did I do?" Lucy got straight to the point. "In the year that never was, what did I do?"  
Jack's face fell and Lucy felt bad for bringing it up, knowing that it was a sore point for her boss but she ignored it because she needed to know.

"What do you mean?"  
"I did something that impressed the Doctor so much he's offering to take me on a trip in the TARDIS. The trip of a lifetime. I'd like to know what I did to earn it. Because right now it feels like a pity trip, I-can't-get-you-back-to-your-universe-so-I'll-help-you-explore-this-one kind of thing" Jack sighed and knew that he wasn't going to get out this conversation.

"You took the piss out of the Master." He said hoping to get this conversation over and done with quickly and make sure everything was sorted for tomorrow.

Lucy just stared at him, in shock. Whatever she was expecting, that wasn't it.

"I did what?"

She couldn't get her head around what Jack had just told her. If it was anyone else she would have laughed at them and would have thought that they were taking the piss but she knew that Jack wouldn't lie about this. He might not always tell the whole truth but for an ex-con Jack lied a surprisingly small amount of the time. She could also see the respect in Jack's eyes, which had been there every time he looked at her since he had returned, it had confused her as to why his respect for her had grown while he was away and she was finally getting her answer.

"You told him he was jealous of me and my immortality." Jack continued. "Said that he would never kill the Doctor because they were childhood friends, called him Koschei."  
"Why the bloody hell would I do that?"

"I think because you wanted to go out with a bang, without any torture." He said honestly. "The Master had been ruling for 9 months. You and Gwen were the only members of Torchwood to survive the first wave of the Toclafane, the decimation. You were leading the British part of the revolution, pretty much the whole revolution, and Gwen was killed a month and a half before the Toclafane captured you."

Silence fell as Lucy tried to get her head around what Jack was telling her.  
"So I..."  
"Taunted the Master until he personally shot you. In front of myself and the Doctor. I think he feels guilty as well as impressed."  
"He's got nothing to feel guilty about." Lucy said automatically. "I was the one who was stupid enough to get captured and went looking for a quick death. Taking the piss out of the Master is one of the most stupid things that I - or any version of me - has ever made. I don't think it counts as brave in anyway shape or form. More like cowardice for wanting the quick way out."

Jack didn't say anything. It was obvious that he agreed she was looking to be saved from the torture that the Master had originally planned for her by a quick death. However it was also obvious that he disagreed with her views that it was cowardice and not bravery, and that he thought it was something to be admired.

They sat in silence for almost 10 minutes, both thinking about the 'Year That Never Was' although only one of them actually had to imagine it. The atmosphere was broken by Jack's phone going off and Lucy left him too it, her mind full of images of the Master and trying to work out what led to the point where she was on the Valiant mocking the Time Lord.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When she got back to Tosh's flat, Tosh was rushing around the flat tiding up. Lucy grinned at the thought of her and Tommy together even though she knew it wouldn't last. Tomorrow Tommy would be woken up and things would start to go wrong and he would have to be sent back home. No more, one day dates. Poor Tosh didn't have the best luck in love.

"I figure I'll stay at a hotel for a couple of nights." She said by way of letting Tosh know she was there. "You know, give you your space for a bit. In case you want to bring anyone home..."

"Why would I want to bring anyone home?" Tosh asked confused.

"You and Tommy got along very well last year, you've picked out a beautiful dress to wear tomorrow, you're dusting that table for the third time. Any and all of the above?"

"No, it's fine Tommy's just a friend, I've only known him for four days."  
"Or four years depending on how you think about it." Lucy grinned and grabbed some clothes. "I'll stay at the hotel anyway, give you a choice. See you and your handsome soldier at work tomorrow." She teased and dodged the cushion that came flying her way.  
"You're terrible, Lucy, you know that."  
"I'm sure someone's mentioned it before. Now don't forget to dust that table one more time..." Another cushion came flying. "Ok, ok, I'm going. I've got something to wear tomorrow."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Ready for today?" Jack asked as Lucy walked into the hub. "Haven't you forgotten something?"Lucy thought but shook her head.

"I don't think so?"

"Tosh?"

"Oh, no. I stayed at a hotel last night. I'm booked in for tonight as well... just in case Tosh wants to... Well, she and Tommy get along really well don't they. I wouldn't want to be the only thing standing in their way" Jack laughed and turned to go back into his office "Oh and Jack."  
"Yeah?"

"2.3 - To the Last Man."  
"So it's today?"  
"I can't confirm or deny that, just that there's an episode based around the events of today."

"Ok, thanks for letting me know. Can you make sure Gwen comes up to my office when she gets in. I need to let her know about Tommy seeing as she was on holiday this time last year"  
Lucy nodded and winced slightly, Gwen had been on holiday because in the two weeks prior to them waking Tommy up her and Ianto had been suspended for hiding a cyberwoman in Torchwood. It wasn't something that they wanted to remind people, even though the team had all individually said that they'd been forgiven.

Twenty minutes later the cog door opened and Gwen walked in.

"Jack wants to see you." Lucy said glancing over from the laptop.

"Do you know what for?" Gwen asked as she took her jacket off.

"Let you know what's happening today. Torchwood had a tradition for the 20th of October and you were on holiday last year so you missed it."

"Anything interesting?"  
"We resurrect a soldier from WWI" Lucy said with a straight face

"Oh ha ha. Might have believed that last year when I was the newbie but not anymore. I'll get Jack to tell me."  
"Good for you." Lucy muttered returning to her work, there had been rumours on the forums that something had happened in one of the old houses on the outskirts of town. Something 'spooky', she was pretty certain that this was just pre-Halloween talk but needed to check, just in case there was more to the story. There had been alien sightings that hadn't been fully accounted for in that area.

"Owen, Lucy, you ready?" Jack called as he walked out of his office, Ianto and Gwen following. Gwen looked like she was confused.

"Nearly." Owen replied.

"You mean what you said was true?" She asked Lucy as they passed her

"Hmm... oh yeah. We are actually resurrecting a WWI soldier, Tommy. Nice dress Tosh." She said to the Japanese woman as she walked through the cog door. "Any special reason?"  
"I just felt like wearing a dress, that's all."  
"Oh yeah?" Owen looked up from his lab. "No reason at all?"  
"No, why would there be?" Tosh said trying to stay innocent, Lucy and Owen smirked and looked at each other, perfectly willing to continue teasing and baiting Tosh.

"Where's this soldier then?" Gwen asked, stopping the teasing before it could properly start.

"He's been here for 90years" Jack explained as they reached the morgue. "Longer than any of us, any of you." He amended.

"Torchwood has been using alien cryogenics since Victorian times." Tosh said to Gwen. "They froze Tommy in 1918" Jack pulled at one of the doors, revealing the body of a young man encased in the freezing chamber.

"He's either 24 or 114." Lucy shrugged. "Which kind of gives him a youthful old fashioned nature."

"We have to wake him up every 12 months or so." Owen said as Tommy was lying on the table in the medbay, already hooked up to an IV and considerably warmer than before.

"Which pretty much means every 20th October unless the world is ending then we do it on the 21st or the 22nd." Lucy pointed out.

"Yeah, well we defrost him, one day only, then he goes back in the freezer."  
"Why?" Gwen was still confused as to what this was all about.

"Check he still works." Ianto said holding a camera.

"One day we're gonna need him." Jack was standing at the top of the bay, looking down at Owen who was doing some final checks. Tosh was standing next to the soldier so she would be the first thing Tommy saw when he woke up.

"Right is everybody ready?" Owen checked and Tosh and Jack nodded, he injected Tommy with something and after a few seconds while there was no reaction and the machines still registering Tommy as dead, Owen grabbed the defibrillators.

"Charging 200, clear." He said for the recording and so that the others would know what he was doing. "Charging 360, clear."

This time Tommy reacted, he started breathing with a gasp and tried to push Owen away. Except this meant that the cables were getting wrapped around him and he was at risk of serious damage; to himself and others. They all jumped in to try and help calm the soldier down and remove the risk

"Tommy" Tosh said

"Leave me alone." Tommy said, he had enough energy to actually push at whoever was holding his arms down. It was Lucy. She stumbled back into the wall, Ianto automatically moved to help her up but she shied away from him, hissing quietly in pain as she used the wall as support and pushed herself up.  
"Tommy! Tommy listen to me!" Tosh tried again "Tommy Brockless." Tommy stopped fighting them and stared up at Tosh, looking slightly scared but also in understanding. "It's me. Toshiko."

"Toshiko..."  
"Remember?"

"Gets harder every year" Owen muttered.

"He's still got a good left hook though." Lucy said with a sigh, checking to see if her back was bleeding.

"I'll check over you once I've checked Tommy."  
"I'm fine" Lucy complained. "No blood, or anything."  
"You're known to lie about your health and you hit your head hard when you fell back. Don't think I didn't notice."  
"Ok, so I have a bit of a headache."  
"Lucy, stop complaining. You're next on the medical table." Jack said, finishing the argument. "No going out into the field or down to the range until Owen checks you over."  
"Fine. I'll just sit here on the steps and stay out of the way."

Tommy pushed himself up, with a bit of help from Tosh and Owen and looked around.

"I'm in Torchwood, is it time again?" Tosh nodded. "Blimey."  
"How are you feeling?" Tosh asked, there was a brief pause while Tommy thought about it.

"I could murder a cup of tea." He said eventually with a small smile. Everyone grinned, although Ianto's fell when he realised that meant he had to make Tommy a cup of tea and if he was making one, he might as well do the coffee for everyone else.

"Don't expect the best china. Visitors only." Ianto said as he poured the tea for everyone else and they started eating. He had ordered in fish and chips and Lucy slightly marvelled at Ianto's ability to find take outs that were open at all times of day. She had been cleared by Owen after a brief check up, she had some spectacular bruises and a hell of a headache but apart from that she was fine. Which was what she had already told them.

"Nice dress." Tommy said to Tosh who blushed slightly.  
"Thank you."  
"Got your slacks on too, is it that cold outside."  
"It's the fashion this year." Ianto explained.

"Ahh," Tommy nodded, he'd seen plenty of fashions come and go. "1968, they were in miniskirts. Thought all my Christmases had come at once. Shame they haven't made a comeback."

"They wore miniskirts in Torchwood?" Lucy asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah. That was a great day."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Thanks for holding the fort for me while I'm out" Tosh said to Owen and Lucy as she grabbed her bag, after Tommy had helped her put her coat on.

"No worries," Owen shrugged. "Have fun. Be Careful."

"Where are you off?" Gwen asked.

"Drink, film, maybe a pizza..." Tosh said with a small smile, Tommy just nodded, not quite sure what the done thing was in the current time.  
"Nothing that sounds remotely like a date then." Lucy said slyly to Owen who coughed to try and cover up his laugh.

"What?" Tosh asked, it obviously didn't work.

"Nothing, just um, Lucy said something stupid that's all."  
"Hey! I could take offence at that."

"Lucy always says stupid things." Tosh said making everyone laugh, Lucy nodded until she realised what Tosh had said.

"HEY! I'm staying in a hotel tonight, and I helped you clean yesterday."  
"You shoved your stuff back into a rucksack and then I threw some cushions at you."

"Ok, well I reminded you to clean the table a third time."  
"Third time?" Jack asked teasingly, "what was wrong with the first two?"  
"Nothing." Tosh blushed slightly "Anyway, I'll be on the mobile if you need me." She said turning and walking away before they could continue to tease her.  
"Have a lovely time"  
"Bye."  
"Have fun."  
"See ya."

"He's a frozen solider from 1918." Gwen muttered, in slight shock, once Tosh was out of hearing distance.

"Nobody's perfect" Lucy said with a shrug as she span round in Tosh's chair. "Technically I don't exist."  
"Ah well we can all dream."

"Stop it you two." Jack said before Lucy could reply, "Gwen can you go and check out the hospital? Make sure it's not this slice of the future."  
"Sure."

Once Jack was sure that Gwen had gone, he called over the rest of the team.

"Right, Owen I want you looking at the scanner that's reading the rift. I need to know everything that's happening. Lucy let slip that it's today."  
"I did not 'let slip' anything, I simply mentioned that I knew about Tommy before last year, that's all." Lucy said pretending as though it wasn't important and she hadn't helped them get ahead of the game.

"Yeah, like I said, Lucy let slip that it's today." Jack repeated. "So we need to be on top of our game. That means I want someone looking at the readings from the rift at all times. Owen if you go off to pee you'd better let someone know so they can take over. I'm going to look at those sealed orders from 1914, see if they're open yet, they're not going out of my sight until they do open. Ianto you need to go searching through the archives, see if there is something in there that can help us."  
"But we don't know what's going on." Ianto complained. At least, if anyone else had said it it would have sounded like a complaint but from Ianto it just sounded like a minor issue.

"Then use your imagination, they had to take Tommy from their time but he returned and died a few months later on the front line again. he has to end up going back home so this has to be something to do with time, we know there are ghosts from the future in 1914 after all."

"I'll see what I can do sir, Lucy, any hints?"  
"Um, something round, maybe." Lucy said feeling slightly awkward but unable to give him much more simply because she couldn't remember, as well as the fact that even if she did remember she wouldn't be able to tell him much.

"Something round. Maybe." Ianto said sarcastically, his accent coming to the forefront as he raised an eyebrow. "Well I'll see what I can do."  
"It's not much but we're ahead of the game. Lucy, do we need weapons? If so get them, If not..."

"I could just hide downstairs until Gwen returns and you have to call Tosh and Tommy back." Lucy said, Jack just gave her a look that said he wasn't very impressed with the idea "That way I can't give anything away." She continued.

"Fine," Jack sighed. "You go hide downstairs and I'll call you up again later. I'd better see proof of work being done though, no sign of any computer game."

"Agreed." Lucy said and slipped off before he could change her mind. She had to look over the paperwork from the recent UNIT cover up that happened on Barry Island.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy tried not to notice that Ianto came down to give her some coffee, it had been two months since she had broken up with him and although it wasn't awkward when they were working as part of the team anymore, when it was just the two of them it was different. It didn't help that she still completely loved Ianto and she was the one who had broken up with him. She also had no idea if he was sleeping with Jack yet, everytime Tosh tried to bring up the idea of her returning home and going back to Ianto, Lucy would just say that she'd be happy to move into a hotel. The team had started to drop hints that they should get back together but they were both ignoring it, Lucy thought she was doing what was best for Ianto and Ianto was trying to hold onto some of his pride by acting as though everything was fine. What actually happened was the team watched as the pair of them both watched each other when they thought no one was looking. Owen could be heard talking about 'teenage angst' and how much fun the entertainment at work had become.

"Um... thanks Ianto. How are you?" She asked, knowing that she had to say something.

"Not bad, Rhiannon and the kids are doing fine, I went to go see them recently."  
"Well that's good isn't it." The awkward silence returned and Lucy was desperate to fill it. Silences with Ianto had never been awkward before and it seemed wrong to be so know. "You're target shooting scores have been improving recently. I'm looking forward to Owen seeing you're close to beating him"  
"Been spending a lot of spare time down in the range."

"Ahhh.." Lucy tried not to act as though she hadn't been watching on the CCTV, she knew she shouldn't but it was hard to resist and she didn't want to. "I should um... I should probably get back to work. Got a few files to look over, Tosh wants more money to run some experiments and Flat Holm has had some more guests recently..."  
"I'll leave you to it." Ianto said quickly.

"Thanks Ianto." Lucy said with a small genuine smile, he turned and looked at her confused. "For the coffee I mean. I hadn't realised I needed it."  
"That's fine. I think Jack's going to call a meeting soon. He went to join Gwen at the hospital, we had a rift spike earlier." And with that he left and Lucy sagged in her seat. It had been two months, it shouldn't be that difficult to have a conversation with him.

He had also been right, Jack did call down for her so they could discuss what was happening.

(*_*) (*_*)(*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Demolishing the hospital is what triggers the time shift." Jack explained as they all sat round the table in the conference room.

"So don't demolish it." Owen said with a shrug.

"Too late. It's already started?"  
"What happens next?" Gwen asked

"Things start to go wrong."

"Yes thank you Lucy." Jack said wit a pointed look. "Two different times should never exist simultaneously. You want to be in 1918 or now, now both."  
"So when 1918 becomes fully manifest..." Tosh trailed off as she tried to understand the implications of what Jack was telling them.  
"It's really going to screw us up." Owen said

"I don't see how that's different from what I said." Lucy pointed out but quickly hid her smirk behind her coffee mug.

"OK. Linear time." Jack picked up a piece of paper and holding it up to show the team. "This is screwed up time." He scrunched it into a ball and threw it at Owen. "Imagine your life as a straight line from birth to death. Now try drawing that line on the paper without straightening it out."

"Well actually..." Lucy knew that she should stay quiet and not say anything, saying something was a bad idea. But this was a perfect moment, there would be no moment more perfect than to use her favourite quote, besides everyone else was already looking at her. "People think time is a strict progression of cause to effect." She started, deciding that she would never forgive herself if she didn't say anything. "When actually it's more like a big ball of timey-wimey... stuff."  
"Timey-wimey stuff?" Jack repeated the phrase and just stared at her. "This is serious Lucy."  
"I know, it's just well... your description of time was wrong. It's not a straight line, it's a ball..."  
"A ball of timey-wimey stuff?" Tommy looked confused. "Am I the only one here who doesn't understand what she's saying?"  
"No" Tosh answered. "No, none of us have any clue what Lucy means, although that happens more often than you would think."

"And where did your knowledge of timey-wimey stuff come from and why is my explanation wrong?" Jack asked, trying to stay calm.

"Ok so the sentence got away from me." Lucy as quite glad she could add that bit of the quote in as well. "But I think you'll find it was a word perfect quote and there are 17 DVDs out there that have that as part of an Easter Egg."  
"You found it on 17 DVDs?"  
"Well no. I don't even know what those DVDs are. But I'm sure if I was to type 'the angels have the phone box' into google. I'd find the relevant forums where they discuss it. I should probably do that. I never got myself a t-shirt."  
"Lucy what the hell are you on about?" Owen asked.

"Nothing, except... that's an episode that we could all watch without fear of learning anything you shouldn't or destroying the time lines or anything."  
"We can watch an episode of Torchwood?" Gwen asked, she had been asking (begging) Jack for ages for him to ask Lucy to let them watch what happened. He continued to turn her down saying she should give it up.

"It's an episode of Doctor Who, not Torchwood. Frankly it's one of the best episodes out there."  
"Ok, Lucy I'll discuss this with you properly later" Jack said taking control of the situation before it got out of hand. "But first we need to make sure that 1918 and 2008 don't merge together and completely destroy time and your chances of watching the DVD in the first place."  
"We'd probably be able to watch the whole disk, it's with Martha - you could invite her over to watch it first if you want Jack." Lucy offered  
"I will think about it later. Right now we have to deal with Tommy. We have a situation going on that we need to stop."

He walked out of the room and the rest of the team followed him after looking at each other, Tommy was the last to get out of his seat.

"Ianto!" Jack called. "Is that box doing anything yet?"  
"Still locked." Ianto replied, walking out of Jack's office with it in his hands.

"Ok, we need to find out how fast the time shift is happening, get some idea when it's going to complete. Tosh, Owen, go to the hospital we need readings. Cover the place in rift monitors. Gwen, Lucy, go through the files, see if there is anything we missed." Jack ordered. Tommy stood, out of place, in the middle of their well practised motions watching as they followed orders without question.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"In 12 hours they'll be a brief moment when both times exist," Jack said as they all sat round the conference table again. The sealed orders had opened. "before the time shift completes, when Tommy can be here now and in 1918. He needs to be in the hospital ready to step from one time to another."  
"So he'll be right inside the time shift."  
"He can close the fracture behind it, yeah." He nodded at Gwen.

"And when the fracture is closed?" Tommy asked, everyone already knew the answer but it was up to Jack as the Captain to explain it.

"1918 will be back where it belongs."

"So will I." It wasn't a question but Jack nodded. "For good?"  
"Yeah. You're the only one who can do this." Jack continued, trying to convince Tommy to do it. "We brought you from 1918 to now and when you go back to 1918, your life will be like a thread, stitching time back together again."  
"A stitch in time." Tommy attempted, and failed, to smile.  
"How?" Tosh said accusingly and Jack picked up something.

"This is a rift manipulator."  
"Round and metal." Lucy interrupted him, glad that she had remembered that correctly.

"Yes, the round metal thing Ianto went on a wild goose chase for. It's basically a key, once you're inside the time shift you can close the door behind you."

"And that's it." Tommy said. "I'm gone."  
"You'd be back home again." Lucy pointed out, thinking out what she had left on the other side of the rift. "I'd go in a split second if I had that opportunity. You've got people waiting for you back home. Surely that's better than here where you get one day a year?" She tried to ignore the looks that Tosh and Ianto were both giving her, although for different reasons.

"I like my one day. It's a good day."  
"I'm sorry but you don't have a choice." Jack said, "We need you to do this. Tommy, stay with Gwen. Tosh, with me." He left the room and Tosh followed him. Lucy left a few seconds later and Ianto followed her. Owen caught Gwen's eye and nodded his head at them, it seemed the argument they had all been waiting for was about to happen.

"You'd leave in a split second?" Ianto said, causing Lucy to stop in her tracks and turn around.

"Course I would. I had a life there Ianto."

"And you'd give up this one where you have friends, a family, a good job... for somewhere where you have none of that?"  
"I've got family Ianto." She didn't deny the other things.  
"A dad who you hate and a sister who got taken away from you."

Lucy froze, almost shaking with anger at what Ianto had just said. It took a while for her to be able to control herself enough to speak. The rest of the team watched with a perverse interest, they knew they shouldn't be watching but couldn't actually bring themselves to look away.

"Oh and you're so much better. How often do you see your sister? Whenever you feel guilty? Or three weeks after the kids birthdays, the ones you've missed because you forgot about them. You want to talk about sisters and fathers? I bet you're so proud of your father – the master tailor who deigned to work in BHS. Or the sister who tries to reach out to you but you still push her away at every opportunity, using work as an excuse. Becky depends on me and I have fuck all for me here."  
"You had me!"

"AND YOU'RE ALREADY FUCKING JACK! IT'S ONLY BEEN TWO MONTHS" Lucy shouted, it was what she had wanted Ianto to do, the whole reason she had broken up with him and yet it still hurt to know that he had moved on so quickly. "DON'T THINK I HAVEN'T SEEN THE WAY YOU LOOK AT EACH OTHER."

"YOU DUMPED ME SO I **COULD** BE WITH JACK."

("This is better than TV" Owen whispered and Gwen hit him, but she still didn't look away)

"It's hardly been easy for me either!" Lucy said loudly although she was no longer shouting

"Oh so I should be feeling sorry for you? You who have been so noble in giving me an opportunity to be with the man I've always secretly been in love with!?"

"No!" She said then took a deep breath. "No. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying... I might have been the one to break up with you Ianto but it's been difficult for me too. So yes, I'd got back to my world in a heart beat. I've got nothing left for me here apart from the job. Between that or Becky – it's no contest."

"Nothing could make you stay?" He wasn't shouting now either but the rest of the team could still all hear. "Nothing?"  
Lucy knew what he wanted her to say, he was close enough now that she could just lean forward and kiss him. She wanted to just lean forward and kiss him. She took a step back.

"I can't go home anyway, so it's all academic. I'm going back to the hotel. See you tomorrow morning bright and early." She grabbed her coat and walked out, Ianto still stood in the centre of the main hub before going over to his coffee machine. The rest of the team shuffled uncomfortably but went back to their own conversations and duties, trying to forget the looks on the faces of their youngest members.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning everyone wisely decided not to mention the argument between Ianto and Lucy, both actually felt better after finally shouting at each other and the car journey wasn't awkward between the pair of them.

They raced into the hospital, with as much rift reading equipment as possible, Tommy was in his 1918 pyjamas and jacket, the rift manipulator in his hand.

"You know we can't be here when it happens." Jack warned Tommy who nodded, he might want the support but it simply wasn't feasible.

The alarms that Tosh and Owen placed the day before started going off and Tommy took a few steps forward with his hand to his head, separating himself from the rest of the team. Tosh followed him a few seconds later.

"Come on." She said calmly reminding him of his duty.

They walked through the corridors and Tommy stopped them when he heard singing. An old fashioned nurse holding an oil lamp walked in front of them, unseeing.

"We're safe." Lucy said softly. "It's fine Tommy, she's just a ghost of the past."

He watched as she walked in front of them and ran after her into a large room that obviously used to be a ward. Tommy stared at something that they couldn't see, remembering something that they could only guess at.

"Tommy?" Tosh pulled him out of his flashback.

"NO" He shouted "NO I WON'T DO IT." The soldier brought out of his time for this moment ran out of the ward and down one of the many corridors.

"Stay here." Jack ordered the rest of them as he and Tosh ran after him.

"Weeeeeell... this is awkward." Lucy said as they looked at each other. "What do we do if Tommy refuses to do it? I mean I'm not going to say it was his destiny or fate..."  
"Because you never believe in pre-destination and not spoiling the known future." Ianto joked, only slightly seriously

"Time between the worlds runs differently. If I ever get back it could be fifty years, a day, hours or no time at all."  
"Still wishing you could go back then?"

"What do you want to know?" She asked rolling her eyes  
"The truth."

"Ok, Tommy does what he's supposed to, after some prompting from Tosh he goes back but it's not enough. Tosh gets projected into his mind and tells him that he has to do it because he's her big brave dashing hero or something else annoyingly romantic. That leads shell-shocked Tommy to turn the key and stop all of time from splintering or being destroyed which means that the reapers aren't going to come and kill us all to cleanse the wound. Oh and the next episode I know involves a giant space whale. Pre-destination, fate destiny and all that bollocks sucks. Because if it happens like I said is it because I said it therefore giving Owen the idea to project a mental image back to Tommy or did I say it because it was always going to happen?"

"I project a mental image?" Owen asked interested.

"Yeah, but I don't know how, all I remember is that it's Tosh who goes and she says that pukey romantic line which was obviously going to happen the second he told her he'd do anything when they were in the pub lunchtime."  
"You said you didn't really remember this one." Gwen accused.

"Turns out living it spikes my memory. Who could have guessed that? Now have you go anything else to accuse me with or should we actually pick up the equipment that we've brought but haven't used and leave this place before things potentially go wrong and it goes boom."

"Good idea." Owen said grabbing his box all the while trying to work out how to make a mental connection with Tommy in the past and project Tosh into his mind.

While walking quickly back through the hospital corridors they met up with Jack and later Tosh who shouted at them to run.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

All the alarms were blazing as the cog door rolled open and they entered the hub.

"What's happening?" Gwen asked

"He's not turned the cog." Lucy said. "Didn't we already have this discussion he's shell-shocked!"

"Lucy shut up and let me think." Jack said as Gwen brought up the screen showing a map of the city and south Wales where more and more dots kept appearing to try show where the history was interacting with the modern world.

Owen had been working on the puzzle that Lucy had set him on the way back. He raced into his medbay and started pulling out Tommy's blood samples.

"We have to send someone through." Jack said, coming to the only conclusion he could see possible, and it would have to be him, he'd be the only one to survive it although it would be a long way home.

"Jack wait, you'd be stuck in 1918. I've got an idea." Owen called up forcing the others to all join him. "The time shifts are forcing the rift open. If we're quick we can use it to our advantage." He picked up a needle he'd just filled with blood, Tommy's blood. "We know Tommy's exact location in time."  
"And space." Lucy added. "That spot he stared at in the hospital, I bet that was where he was taken from."

"Yeah, anyway we can send an image of someone through to him."  
"I can go into Tommy's mind." Jack said catching on to the whole idea.

"As a psychic projection, yes."  
"Let me do it." Everyone apart from Jack, was waiting for Tosh to speak up. Jack looked at his team wondering why he and Tosh were the only ones surprised not only by Owen's genius idea but by Tosh's request.

"He trusts me." Tosh continued

"Ok." Jack said.  
"Ianto can you grab that thing there for me." Owen said pointing at something in one of his cupboards, once it was handed over he put it on Tosh's head as she sat down on the bed.

"How long have I got?" Tosh asked

"Minutes." Owen replied.

"You've got one shot, Tosh. That's all." Jack said patting her arm. "You can do this."  
"I'd whoop cheer and form a cheerleading squad but we've not got time." Lucy said and Tosh couldn't help herself and smiled.

"You know I wouldn't mind seeing that." Jack said musingly.

"Get you're head out of the gutter Captain. You heard Owen we've not got time. Ready?"

Tosh nodded and Owen injected the blood into her and grabbed her wrist, feeling for a pulse as her eyes shut and her head lolled backwards a bit.

"Tommy... Tommy... It's me. Toshiko... I'm here to help you... No, do you know what it is?"  
It was weird hearing one half of the conversation, almost like listening to someone on the phone but Tosh's facial expressions were all muted too, as though she only had a vague connection to her body.

"Tommy. It's a key, you have to use it... It's alright... No you are not... For the future. For me... Because you're my brave, handsome hero. Tommy use the key... Thank you."

She gasped and her whole body jerked as the alarms stopped going off.

"You alright?" Owen asked

"He did it." Tosh said. "He did it."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hey." Lucy said, leaning against the door frame as Tosh folded up the clothes that Tommy had worn the day before and placed them gently back into the suitcase

Tosh looked up at her and Lucy gave her a small smile.

"What?"  
"Come back to the hotel with me tonight, don't go back home not yet."  
"You inviting me back to yours?" Tosh asked with a slight teasing note in her voice, although the effort that took was obvious.

"Well I've been at yours long enough." Lucy shrugged, "I just don't want you to be alone. Not yet, I've got another night all paid for so we may as well use it"

"Maybe." Tosh said, "Maybe."  
"Well the offer is there if you want it." She passed over the hotel key. "It's room 412, come and join me when you're ready."

**A/N: Hope your all having a good day/had a good day/about to have a good day.**

**I just want to quickly answer an anoymous review from the last chapter who said "**I don't particually like where ur taking Lucy with this. She's becoming someone who isn't particually likeable, and I don't think this is who she was initially portrayed as. I assume you have a reason for this?" **I think in this chapter it's understandable why you think Lucy isn't likable is she's acting quite dark towards Beth 'the morally undecided cop'. But she's also in a weird place mentally with the whole Ianto thing. I think it's toned down a bit in this chapter even though she had Ianto finally have the argument that people have been waiting for. I hope that you liked her more in this chapter, if not can you please let me know what you didn't like. Thanks - Rea**

**As for everyone else, thanks as always for the amazing reviews, I never thought I would have so many, I'm nearly at 150 which is just ridiculous and I'll see you next week for the first half of Meat (which is definitely in 2 parts)**

**Rea**


	37. Chapter 37 - Meat, Part 1

"Would the haulage firm be in on it to?" Tosh asked as the jingle for Harwood's Haulage finished playing.

"Rhys, no!" Gwen said quickly. "He doesn't know what goes in the vans, he just hires them out" The said defensively when Jack looked at her.

"I've always liked Rhys," Lucy commented, for once siding with Gwen, "He's a nice welsh bloke"

"Driver must know, he'd have seen it loaded" Ianto pointed out

"That doesn't implicate Rhys." Gwen reiterated, "Lucy's right, he's the most honest bloke I know." They all looked at Lucy again and she shrugged, "I know this one, episode 2.4. I've always had a soft spot for Rhys, he's a genuine nice guy which makes this one a favourite episode of mine."

"You've known quite a lot recently" Jack said and Lucy agreed.

"Well then there must be a fair bit coming up that I don't know and I'm not sure if four counts as a lot. While you were gone I didn't know anything, apart from... well _that_. But back to Rhys."

"Have you got his direct line?" Tosh asked, Gwen just looked at her and Tosh realised what a stupid question that was, of course Gwen would have his work number. He had Gwen's even though he didn't know where she worked, but it was still rare that any civilian had a direct line into the hub.

Gwen pulled her phone out and quickly found the number, so she passed it over to Tosh who set the call to go through the standard unrecognisable and untraceable Torchwood line.

"Harwoods Haulage, how may I help you?" The cheerful, voice on the phone answered, obviously Rhys's secretary. She sounded like she was trying too hard to be happy though and Lucy was annoyed with herself that her first thought was that the woman was covering something up and therefore must be in one the secret. One of her colleagues had been killed less than an hour ago, of course she would be trying not to let grief into her voice. She had been working for Torchwood for too long and needed some time in the real world if her first thought about a grieving woman was suspicion.

"Good morning, my name is Detective Jones." Tosh said, "I'm calling from Cardiff police station, I was wondering if I could speak to your manager." There was a pause while the phone was passed over before Rhys's voice came over the speaker system.

"Hello."  
"Are you the manager of Harwood's Haulage?" The Japanese woman asked, "Rhys Williams?"  
"Yeah speaking."

"Are you aware of what happened earlier today with one of your drivers?"

"Yes, I'm aware of the accident."

"Can you give us any information about who was renting the van from you?"  
"It's a firm called Harris and Harris." Rhys said as Ianto started writing down what he was saying. "They came to us about two months back. It's a weekly contract."

"Are they licensed?"  
"Yeah course they're licensed." Rhys sounded offended that they wouldn't check something like that before allowing their vans to be used. Ianto passed a slip of paper over to Jack who read it and nodded.

"Can you give me their address?"

There was the sound of muffled conversation and then Rhys spoke again.

"Sorry, all I've got is the address of a service station on the A490, about 15 miles outside of Cardiff."

"Do you have their contact number?" Tosh tried.

"No, there's no contact number either." Rhys sounded annoyed and Lucy guessed that if the driver wasn't dead he would have been brought in for a 'conversation' about the lack of information on the books.

"Well can you tell me where you're driver took the meat?"

"Yes." Rhys was obviously relieved to be able to give them something of use. "He was taking it to Caerwen Abattoir. It's a processing plant. Just er... a general, general meat suppliers"

Jack passed the piece of paper over to Tosh which prompted her next question.

"What time did the driver leave base?"

"Signed out at 12:50. Can I ask what this is about?"  
"I can't release that information, sir." Tosh replied swiftly bringing the conversation to an end. "Thanks for your cooperation." She hung up before Rhys could speak.

The team all looked at each other, the conversation on the fault definitely didn't help Rhys look innocent.

"Got him" Ianto called and they all turned to him. He had been looking through the CCTV for the service station. "And there he is again 40 minutes later. Let's say it takes 20minutes to load we are talking a 10 mile radius."

"Jack!" Owen called from the medbay where he had been inspecting the meat.

"Yeah?" Jack put his mug down and walked over to him, Tosh, Lucy and Gwen following while Ianto walked towards the tourist office.

"Scan shows it's definitely alien meat." The doctor sighed as he pulled off his gloves

"Where the hell would they get it from?"

"If it's going into the processing plant, that means it's going into pies, burgers, pasties, everything." Tosh said, thinking aloud.  
"That means people have been eating it for months." Gwen added.

"Which means we've probably all been eating it and we're fine. So it's edible then." Lucy said playing with her plait.

"We might not be fine." Jack pointed out.

"Owen tests us regularly enough that if anything happened we'd know." She shrugged, trying to act like she wasn't slightly worried. "I mean you would know wouldn't you Owen?"  
"Yeah. The DNA traces are stable and there are some signs of animal sedative, but no detectable diseases or residues. My guess is it's fine to eat."

"Would you eat it?" Gwen asked.

Owen was spared from answering as Ianto jogged over to them.

"Pizza's arrived. I presumed it would be a late one."

"What did you get me?" Owen started to pull off the apron.

"Your usual, Meat Feast."

The team all looked down at the slab of meat on the examining table and then back up to Owen, Lucy tried and failed to keep the smirk off her face. Her pizza probably had meat on too but no where near as much.

"Lovely."

"I've narrowed it down to three potential areas. Only one warehouse is unoccupied, just outside Merthyr"  
"Makes sense" Owen said as he continued to pick pieces of meat off his pizza. "Who knows what goes on there."  
"Well they're not into cannibalism, which makes it better than the last time you had to go into the countryside." Lucy pointed out as she picked up the next slice of pizza.

"Only just." He complained.

"We've got to shut the entire operation down." Jack said with his mouth full as Gwen's phone went off. "Neutralise whoever's doing this. Tosh, you can co-ordinate."

"I have to slip home and check on Rhys first." Gwen said sliding her mobile back into her pocket.

"Good idea you can find out what he knows."  
"I'm not sure that's what she meant" Lucy said seeing Gwen's expression of annoyance, something she recognised because it was pointed at her so often.

"I'll trust that if you say he's innocent he is," Jack said gesturing at Lucy with his pizza. "But he must still know something.  
"So my word counts for nothing then?" Gwen asked, it was phrased politely but the tone of her voice made no doubts about her mood.

"Not when your blinded, this is Rhys, your Rhys. It could be easy enough for him to hide something from you."  
"I'm going home to talk to my fiancée, not to question him, to talk!" Gwen snapped as she left the hub. The rest of the team all looked at each other and then went back to finishing their food.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The drive to the warehouse was a quiet one; Lucy went with Owen and Ianto while Jack stayed behind to wait for Gwen.

_"Ianto, Owen, Lucy we're just on our way in. How are things looking at the slaughterhouse? Are you in position?_" Jack spoke over the earpieces.

"Yeah, it's all quiet here. There's a deserted access road to the side." Ianto replied "We won't get noticed. I'll direct you in."

Lucy tried to open a side door as they passed it, but just like every other one she had tried it was locked.

_"Ianto, nearly there."_  
"Take the second turning. Park on the left, no one will see the car there. There's a main entrance at the front"

"Every other door is locked." Lucy said, "So unless you want me to shoot them open, the front door is the only way in."

_"We'll leave that for now, thanks Lucy."_ Jack replied and they could hear the smile in his voice.

"Besides the rest are all padlocked and alarmed, might get us noticed if you shoot them." Ianto said sarcastically.

"Thanks, Ianto. Because I hadn't noticed that. The trick is to shoot the bloody alarm first."  
"Will you two please just stop it." Owen complained. "Jack for the love of god get me out of here. These two were getting on so well earlier that I thought maybe after three months they had got over the break up. They've been apart now for as long as they were together. OW! Lucy don't hit me woman!"

"Shut up!" She hissed as Jack and Gwen laughed.

_"How many are in there?"_ The immortal man asked.

"Difficult to tell, there aren't any windows." Lucy replied

_"I've got blueprints of the warehouse."_ Tosh said from the hub. "_The stock has to be in the central area. Having fun?"_  
"Oh it's great." Owen complained.

"You don't know what you're missing." Ianto added dryly.

"It's a warehouse in fucking Merthyr, and it looks like it's about to rain. What do you think?" Lucy asked.

"According to the sensor there's a hear signature across the entire building." Owen said looking the equipment in his hands.  
_"That's a lot of meat."_ Gwen breathed.

_ "You three take the sides and Gwen and I will take the front. We don't want any casualties."_ Jack ordered. _"We stun gun whoever's in there and put a stop to what they're doing."_

"Did you bring the alarm deactivator?" Ianto asked, Lucy rolled her eyes and shot the alarm.

"Like I said, just need to shoot it."  
"There are less violent ways."

"Yeah but this one means I don't need to remember to bring anything else with me." She grabbed the door handle, nodded at the two men to have their guns ready and pulled it open.

_"Ianto, Owen, Lucy." _Jack said _"Stand down. Repeat, stand down. Lucy you and I need a little chat about your memory."_  
"What's happened?" Lucy asked as she shut the door again.

"Rhys is in on it. You lied to me. We wait until he comes out and discuss this later." The radio-waves went silent.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Well this was unprecedented." Ianto said after they received Gwen's text about bringing Rhys in. "The boyfriend finding out."  
"Just as well none of the rest of us have lives outside of this place." Lucy sighed. "Nothing and no one to hide the big secret from."  
"It's mainly because we're all sad and single." Tosh said, before looking up quickly at Ianto and Lucy. "I mean."  
"No, it's fine. You're right." Lucy said. "We are all sad and single."  
"Not all of us by choice." Ianto mumbled.

"Speak for yourself." Owen said, picking up his beer. "I am better off without all that hassle."  
"Maybe the answer is... no never mind." Tosh stopped herself from saying more but they all looked at her waiting to hear what the answer might be. "I was going to say go out with someone who knows what you do."  
"We're the only one's who know what we do. And look how well it worked for Ianto and Lucy." Owen gestured at the two of them  
"There's always UNIT." Lucy pointed out. "And Ianto and I are a bad example anyway, we didn't break up because of Torchwood."  
"No it's because you think I should fuck someone else." Ianto looked up at Jack but before Lucy could reply the lift lowered at Rhys entered Torchwood

"WOW." Rhys couldn't stop looking around and Myfwany swooped down past them, like the perfect guard dog. If she hadn't recognised Gwen they were all aware she would have gone for the attack. "That looks almost real."  
"It is real." Gwen giggled.

"They're extinct, Gwen." Rhys said scornfully.

"Oh boy." Jack signed before walking up to great them. "In your time line yes. Captain Jack Harkness, thanks for dropping in Rhys."

"This is the rest of the team." Gwen said stepping off the lift. "Owen and Toshiko, Ianto and you've met Lucy before." She pointed at them as she said their name and they all smiled back.

"Please to meet you." Rhys said slightly awkwardly, the whole situation was awkward.

"Welcome to our headquarters." Jack said.

"It's a bit bigger than mine." There was an attempt at laughter but it failed pretty quickly  
"And this is just the tip of the ice-berg." Lucy said, trying to be friendly."we've got more downstairs and upstairs is where Myfwany sleeps. The pterodactyl. We can introduce you later."

"Right. So, Gwen tells me you catch aliens."  
"That's right." Jack nodded.

"There's a rift through Space and Time that runs through Cardiff." Owen said, leaning on the railings. "And stuff slips through it from other timelines and planets, and in rare cases universes. It's our job to monitor it."  
"Are you sure they're not some weird cult?" Rhys asked Gwen as he finally stepped off the lift.

"You saw that alien in the warehouse." She replied "Go on." Gwen nodded towards Jack. "Tell him."

"What did you see?" Jack asked, the awkwardness of the situation finally disappearing as they got serious and down to business.

"Er... it was like this huge shapeless beast, filling the space. Like a mound of flesh."  
"So it's one massive entity as opposed to several organisms?" Tosh asked, and Rhys shrugged in agreement.

"The latest test revealed high levels of Chloride so it probably live in the ware. I reckon it came through the rift into the sea and it's beached itself."  
"So we've got a Space Whale then." Lucy said. "Those things can fly through the stars and grow big enough to carry entire cities on it's back. They live for years." She thought about the space whale in the Doctor Who episode; the last of it's kind and so very old, being tortured for years even though it had volunteered to help and save the children.

"Maybe not a space whale but some kind of giant alien manatee." Jack offered. "It would have flown away when it landed here if it could have done."

"Maybe it was injured, just saying. It sounds like a Space Whale to me."  
"But how did they get it there?" Ianto asked "That warehouse must be 50 metres long."  
"Um... maybe it was smaller when they found it. They said it's growing." Rhys offered.

"It's not dead?"

"No, it's breathing. It's eye opened"

"So the protein chains are regenerating despite the mutilation." Owen said. "So, not only is it replenishing its own flesh, but it's increasing it. Giving them a brand new meat supply."  
"Anyone else want to say screw the stun guns?" Lucy asked, only half joking.

"It'll last them for years then." Gwen said.

"If we understood how it worked we could feed the world." Tosh breathed.

"We could release a single." Ianto added and Lucy grinned, even though she was trying to keep hold of her anger. She had been repulsed by the concept of what these people were doing when it was just a TV show, to hear confirmation that they were doing this in real life made her furious. No one deserved to be hurt and used like that.

"Before we get ahead of ourselves and Lucy goes on a shooting spree, we're talking about dodgy pies in Merthyr, ok? And the fact that they're cutting it up alive, which we could have put a stop to already if it wasn't for you." Jack accused Rhys.

"I thought my fiancée was in danger." Rhys replied.

"Well, Mr Caveman, she wasn't. She can handle herself." Jack walked towards Rhys  
"Jack." Gwen tried to get him to stop, it didn't work.

"All you did tonight was mess things up. Now we have to think of a way to get back in and, thanks to you, they'll have tightened security."

Rhys obviously wasn't putting up for Jack being intimidating or accusing him of things and walked towards him as well. Both the men were right in each other's faces.

"Well if you stopped and asked me what I saw in there, instead of showing off around the place."  
"Do I show off?" Jack turned and asked Ianto who nodded.

"Just a bit."

"You'd know that I got out by telling them I wanted a job, as a delivery boy. So rather than cock things up, I've found you a way to get in. But if you can't handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it."  
There was a pause before Jack spoke again.

"This is quite homoerotic."  
"No, no, no, no, no, Jack." Gwen said, suddenly realising what both men where thinking. "He is not getting us in."  
"Team meeting." Jack said, and pointed at Rhys. "You, too."

They all followed Jack to the conference room, Gwen trying to persuade Jack to change his mind, while Rhys just shrugged and followed them.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"That's where the thing is." Rhys said pointing at the blueprints of the building that Tosh had put onto the table. "That's the sedatives room. That's where they hang and pack all the meat."  
"Good to know." Owen pointed out.

"Yeah it is god to know." Gwen agreed. "But he's not driving us in."  
"They're expecting me. You lot can hide in the back of the van."  
"What is this, Scooby Doo? Absolutely no way is he getting involved."  
"Oh, where was I when you decided to get involved?" Rhys argued. "Did you give me a second thought?"  
"Oh joy," Owen sighed. "A domestic."

"Rhys is right, he's our best way in." Jack interrupted the argument. "Stun guns only."  
"Err. They're going to be armed." Lucy said, "I'm not happy with them having an advantage over us."  
"How the hell do you know that?" Rhys asked but they ignored him.

"Are you sure?" Jack said seriously and Lucy nodded. "Ok, so we take guns too." Jack amended his order, "We don't use them unless we have to."  
"We've handled bigger than this." Owen pointed out. "Why don't we just storm in, guns in the air and arrest them?"  
"Those men aren't organised criminals. If we go in guns blazing, they'll kill the evidence and run."  
"I wasn't suggesting blazing, just waving."  
"The last thing we need is a blood bath. We can take our guns, but I don't want any of us using them unless things go wrong and our lives are in danger. Understood?" He looked at all of them and they all nodded in agreement.

"I know that..." Gwen tried to argue for Rhys to stay out of it again.  
"Once Rhys has loaded up, he can clear off." Jack stated. "You don't have to come. You can stand down."  
"Might be better if you do." Lucy offered. "You could organise things from here."  
"You love him." Jack pointed at Rhys and sighed "That makes you vulnerable"  
"He's not going in there without me."

"That's your decision." Jack agreed. "One you'll both have to live with."

"Oh come on." Rhys said as Gwen paced. "You and me, a team!"  
"Damn it Rhys!" Gwen said slamming her hands down on the table. "This is for real, do you understand that? This is for real! And if you mess up, _I _will kill you."

Rhys looked a bit shocked at how Gwen was speaking to him but they both sat down in their seats as Tosh stood up.

"So after we've stun-gunned the workers, we put the creature out of its misery."

"No." Jack said blithely. "We're going to save it. Stabilise it, wait for the rift to open and send it back."

"Guess who'll have to look after it in the meantime." Ianto said dryly as he drank his coffee.

"Tell me exactly how we are going to use it to arm ourselves against the future?" Tosh asked

"We could always hide behind it." Owen offered.

"Not that I don't agree with you Jack, I do want to save it, and I hate to be annoying." Lucy said, and Ianto snorted. "But how are we going to do that when we have no idea where or when it came from and are unable to predict what will be on the other side of the rift as it opens up again. What's our success rate with sending things back to where they came from?"

"Why shouldn't we save it?" Jack asked. "Because it's an alien? It needs our protection, we've helped things that came through the rift before." Everyone apart from Rhys glanced over at Lucy.

"You didn't hear it's cry." Rhys said, "Heartbreaking."

"Listen to Ahab." Ianto said sarcastically.

"Jack, it's growing." Lucy argued. "And you still haven't answered my question, how do we know that even if we somehow achieve the impossible – stop it from growing, look after it until the rift opens, get it to and through the opening – that what'll be on the otherside will be it's home or somewhere better than here?"

"We don't, but we are doing this." He stood up and stared at all of them. "That's an order."  
"Fine." Owen said, getting up and leaving the conference room.

"I'll stock up on plankton." Ianto added.

"Not everyone can get home." Lucy sighed, "But I'm up for always trying."

"So you do have a heart." Gwen said quietly and Lucy stared at her, shocked that not only did Gwen think something like that but that she actually said it. Neither woman were sure if she was talking about Lucy or Jack, but either way it was one hell of a thing to think.

"We see enough death." Jack said, turning to Rhys and then walking away. Lucy decided not to say anything to Gwen in front of her fiancée but decided to make sure she had more paperwork in the next few days and to push her on the range once this was done. Small annoying things like that.

"I'm leaving for the night." Lucy said getting up. "I'll see you tomorrow, it's good to see you again Rhys."

"Yeah, you too." He replied.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy and Jack walked with Rhys as he popped into the office.

"You sure about this?" Jack asked. "Cause once they ring there's no turning back."  
"Yeah." Rhys replied. "I know."

"You get us there, take the stock and leave. No heroics or anything, leave the dangerous stuff to us." Lucy said seriously. "I once told Gwen I wasn't going to tell you that she was dead, I'm not going to do be the one to tell her that you're dead either. Understand."  
"I get it. Don't worry." Rhys said defensively. "No doing anything that could get me or any of you lot killed."

"Good"

"Morning'" Rhys said as he walked through the office."  
"You just missed the advert." A woman who could only be a secretary said, following him through.

"Yeah? Just popped in for my jacket and to sign for a van." He grabbed something off the wall and quickly signed it as he picked up some keys and his jacket.

"Here's your tea." The secretary said as she passed him a mug and a small brown paper bag. "And I got you a Danish, your favourite."  
"I'm in the wrong job." Jack said appreciatively.

"We've got Ianto's coffee." Lucy pointed out, "that's like heaven on earth."  
"Yeah but still, a danish."  
"We do have got job vacancies" The woman said smiling.  
"Maybe you could fit me in." Jack said suggestively.

"I'd be delighted to."  
"Would I need a licence for trucking?"  
"Yes. Takes four weeks and then you can go long distance." She obviously wasn't picking up on Jack's innuendo's, although she was the only person in the room not to do so. Lucy was hiding her smile and trying not to laugh out loud.  
"Oh, that wouldn't be a problem."

Rhys's mobile went off and Jack and Lucy both side stepped round the woman who only just seemed to have picked up on Jack's sexual undertones.

"It's them." Rhys said destroying the playful mood that had previously been in the office.

"Ok." Jack nodded at him and Rhys answered the phone. "Yeah, hello?"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Why her?" Rhys asked as they drove. "Of all the women you could have chosen?"

"She chose us." Jack replied, "Kind of stumbled upon us."

"So did I, doubt you'll be asking me to join."

"We needed someone with police skills."  
"Could have chosen anyone. Did you even think about me, her parents, people who love her, want to keep her safe."  
"No sorry, we needed her."  
"We tried to push her away." Lucy said, "But, she wouldn't let us. We had a vacancy and she was there. I even asked her again if she was sure about it after her first day went badly wrong, once she knew what she was signing up for. But she was determined to stay."

"She's as stubborn as hell." Jack agreed.

"Mmm." Rhys said, "tell me about it. She's an amazing girl. I'm a lucky man."

"Yeah you said it."

"On her first day she told us off for being too clinical." Lucy said, "I lost my temper at her, badly." Jack laughed at the understatement.

"You were growling at her."  
"She doesn't hold back." Rhys warned them  
"Don't we know it"

"I just wish you were a big uglier though Jack." Rhys said and Jack looked at him, the pair of them laughed.

"I just wish his ego was a bit smaller." Lucy added cheekily

"You're not gay by any chance are you?"

"He'll shag anything with a pulse." Lucy said. "But doesn't go for people that are already taken. Plus he's got his eye on someone else, don't worry."

They slipped down a side road where the rest of the team was waiting for them.

"Bought you a Danish," Gwen said. "your favourite. I know what you're like on an empty stomach."

"Err... thanks Gwen." Rhys said taking it from her. Lucy smirked but didn't say anything about the one that Rhys had already finished. They jumped out of the van and Rhys opened up the back for them. Owen climbed in first and helped Tosh in, Ianto followed, Lucy used the side of the door to pull herself up.

"I love you." Gwen said to Rhys and kissed him.

"I love you too. Now stop fussing and get in the back of the van. Go on." He said. Jack followed her, nodded at Rhys and then shut the door.

Once they were in the van Lucy started handing out bullets for the guns that they'd brought with them as well as torches and stun guns.

"I'll prepare an antidote to the Ketamine so we can start weaning it off." Owen said.

"Gwen, Tosh and I will take the main area. Owen, Ianto, Lucy, cover the corridors and the small rooms. Ianto you need to make sure that Owen has the time to sort out the medical stuff, Lucy I need you to get as much of that space under our control as possible. Understand?"  
They nodded and Owen swore, loudly.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"I've not got any bloody pain killers, they'll have some industrial strength ones but I don't have my normal supply kit."  
"You forgot the human pain relief?" Lucy asked astounded. "You, the medic, forgot the normal supply kit?"  
"I was focussing on other things." Owen defended himself. "Like my bloody paperwork and how to stop the space whale from mutating as well as stop it being addicted to Ketamine."

"We'll just have to be careful then and hope they have decent first aid kits." Jack said, "There's nothing we can do about this now?"

"You ok?" Lucy asked Gwen as they neared the warehouse.  
"What do you think?"  
"I think letting someone you love do this job is enough to drive you mad with worry but you just have to trust them." She replied, not noticing Ianto turning to look at her as she made a point of not trying to look at him, she had been the one to dump him and had to get over it. "Rhys isn't going anywhere near the danger, he'll be fine. He's a good bloke."

"Let's go." Jack said, they listened for Rhys to get rid of the men outside and jumped out of the side door of the van.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Thank you for all my lovely reviews. I love each and every one of my reviewers. I hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you next week**

**Rea**


	38. Chapter 38 - Meat, Part 2

**A/N: Just a warning there is a LOT of swearing at the end of this chapter!**

They went through the doors, stun guns first. Owen, Lucy and Ianto quickly split off from the rest of the team and went to where Rhys had said they were packaging the meat.

Ianto threw his hand up to cover his nose and mouth, the smell of the meat was stronger than they were expecting, but they didn't have time to get used to it. They had a job to do.

The three of them continued down the corridor until it split it two.

"I'll go this way" Lucy gestured at the one on the left. "I'll call for you if I find where they are keeping the pain killers."  
Owen nodded at her and they split up, Lucy going through different corridors and stun-gunning three different people as they passed her, removing their guns and dragging them into the closest room and out of sight. There was no need for anyone to know that they were there, not until it was too late.

"_Lucy's right._" Owen said in her ear, "_They are definitely armed_."  
"I've gained three new guns so far for our armoury." She replied, "no sign of any medical stuff though."  
"_No, I've found where they're keeping that. There's petrol buckets filled with the stuff."_

_"Ianto did Rhys get away?_" Gwen asked.

_"I'll check now."_ Ianto replied and there was silence for a while, as Ianto went to look, Lucy continued looking and managed to find what looked like the main office at the back.

_"They've got Rhys and Ianto. Taken his Ianto's gun." _Owen said and Lucy's blood ran cold. She stood still in the centre of the office, desperate to run to Ianto and check he was ok. She should have remembered this, she should have been more prepared, done something to stop it happening.

_"Lucy?"_ Jack said, pulling her out of her thoughts. "_Lucy I need you to keep securing the place."  
_"But Jack..."_  
"I know they have Ianto and I know you want to go make sure he's ok. But you need to focus on the job in hand, we'll get Ianto out of there."_  
"If he's hurt..." Lucy couldn't even finish the sentence, not even wanting to think of that situation, it didn't matter that she had dumped him so he could have a chance with Jack. All that mattered was that Ianto was safe. She had forgotten that Ianto could also hear what was being said, the men might have taken away Ianto's guns but the ear piece was tiny, and unless you knew it was there you wouldn't notice it. She didn't know that her panic was stopping Ianto's and giving him hope that everything could turn out ok and that they still had a chance as a couple

_"If they've hurt Ianto and Rhys, once we've secured the place I will let you and Gwen deal with them. But until then we need to focus on saving the space whale. Ianto's good at his job, he'll be able to keep Rhys safe. Now get back to work. Ok?"_  
"Ok." Lucy breathed. "But if they hurt him, Janet's getting a new playtoy. No one hurts Ianto and gets away with it."

_"Maybe we won't go quite that far. But fine."_  
"I'm swapping the stun-gun out. As weapons specialist I can't order the rest of you to do so, but I can strongly advise it." Lucy said as she pulled her glock out of it's holster and shoved the stun gun into its place.

She went back the steps and along the corridor to the main room, checking every door as she passed it for a way out and unbolting the ones that had been bolted. Being locked in was not a good idea.

Lucy found herself at the very back of the room, with boxes stacked high around her and easily slipped into the shadows that it made, making herself as small as possible so as not to be noticed. The space whale was moaning and although she couldn't see she could hear what was being said.

"Anymore of you?" One of the men asked. "And before you answer have a proper think. 'Cause if you lie, I will shoot you."

"There's just me." Gwen said in reply. "We can help you out Dale."  
"Get against the drum" Dale ordered but Gwen didn't seem to listen to him. "You can help yourselves more like. Come on, stand next to her. You, too."

"DALE TWO MORE!" Someone shouted from above Lucy, she moved slightly, so she could hear better. She still couldn't see what was happening but the scene from the TV show was suddenly playing in her head, reminding her of what she had previously forgotten "Far corner."

Lucy could only imagine as Dale pulled Ianto back and held a gun to his head.

_"Stay calm Lucy."_ Owen whispered in her ear, it was Tosh and Jack that had been spotted. Owen and Lucy were the only ones left free and available to do something. _"We're gonna be needed."_

"What's happened?"

_"They're holding Ianto hostage, Tosh and Jack are going to have to move."_  
"I'm backed into a fucking corner." Lucy breathed. "If I move to cover them they'll see me."  
_"Well they haven't yet." _Jack said quietly. _"You've fought the Master, you can do this. Just stay calm, the pair of you."_

"Take out your weapons, stand where I can see you." Dale ordered and Tosh and Jack did what he said, coming out of their hiding place holding their guns high as they stood with their arms up, showing surrender.

"Drop your weapons." They threw them to the ground

"You know what you've got here Dale?" Jack asked walking forwards, Lucy hoped that Dale would turn his gun on her boss and take it off Ianto, she might hate it when Jack died and knew he could still feel the pain. But Jack would come back, Jack could survive. Ianto couldn't

"Shut up man." Dale said, his gun still pointed at Ianto's chest.

"It's an alien. A creature from another galaxy." Jack continued. "It came through a rift in time and space and it was unlucky enough to find you."  
"No, no way." One of the other men said in disbelief.

"Did you really think it originated on this planet?" Tosh asked "Have you ever seen anything like it before?"

"It can't be. Can it?"

"Look at it." Jack ordered. "You're carving up a sentient creature. You've got to stop."  
"And then what have I got?" Dale shouted. "I'm making money here! This is my business."  
"He's mad." Lucy breathed, "You're not going to be able to reason with him Jack." There was no sign of a reply but Lucy knew that the team had heard her.

"For the first time in my life I've actually got something for myself."  
"Dale, stop," Gwen said. "You can still walk away from this."

There was a pause, where the only sound was the call of the creature and Dale seemed to think. They all held their breath hoping that Lucy was wrong, that Dale was going to back down.

"No." Dale said. "No, you lied to me."

He went to shoot Gwen at the exact moment that Ianto managed to get himself free from the rope around his wrists. Rhys jumped in front of Gwen and was hit in the shoulder instead as Ianto grappled with Dale, the gun going off and shooting at the ceiling and breaking some of the straps that were holding the space whale down.

Lucy ran out of her hiding place and down the other side of the whale, still trying to stay unnoticed as much as possible and using the commotion to cover her movements. There was one other exit that was unlocked that she needed to cover, she would not let anyone, especially Dale, leave. Any plan that they had made earlier was destroyed. The alien started pulling itself free. Gwen rushed to Rhys's side. Ianto fought with Dale. Lucy stood guard of her door as Jack and Tosh started to make sure that the rest of the men stayed down, using both stun guns and regular guns as bullets started flying.

Dale got himself free and shot at Ianto.

The only reason Ianto lived was because Dale was out of bullets.

Jack pulled Tosh out of the way as more of the straps broke.

Dale ran away from the team towards the other exit, grabbing Ianto's fallen gun on the way.

_"Ianto, go after the others." _Jack ordered. _"Own, Rhys has been shot. The creature's coming loose, we need that sedative now! Lucy, where are you?"_  
"Guarding the exit." Lucy replied. "Ianto are you ok?"

_"I'm fine."_ Ianto breathed as he started to run, _"I think Dale's coming your way. There's two others though."_  
"You make sure they stay down and I'll worry about Dale. I stunned most of the workers earlier, so you shouldn't need to worry about them."

_"I'm on it." _Owen said, _"Don't worry."  
"Owen we need you."_ Jack replied. _"The creature is getting free and we're trapped."_

_"Yeah, I'm on it!"_

Lucy stopped listening to what the others were saying as Dale ran towards her.

"Stop or I will shoot" She said calmly, raising her gun, her arms unwavering. "I don't want to kill you even though you tried to kill Ianto. Stop and drop the gun."

He kept on going, raising his gun too. But his hand wasn't as steady, he may have shot at Gwen earlier, and tried to kill Ianto too but the situation was obviously hitting home and shock was starting to take over from the adrenaline.

She shot the same time he did, he gave her no choice. Only hers was a better shot and killed him instantly. His hit her thigh, and she couldn't hold back the grunt of pain. As she leant again the wall and used it as a crutch to help get herself into a position where she could still shoot but be defended by the boxes around her

"_Lucy_?" Ianto said and she could hear the worry in his voice.

"I'm fine Ianto, Dale is dead, I had no choice."

_"I heard two gun shots"_ Jack replied, raising Ianto's worry and she groaned again.

"I'm fine. He's a shit shot. He's dead, I'm not. We've got a space whale to deal with." She leant forward and grabbed the gun that Dale had had, it had fallen towards her when he fell.

There was another pause and after a bit Jack spoke again.

_"If you're sure, we can't get to you right now. Owen where is that sedative?"_

_"Change of plan." _Owen replied. "_I've got Ianto here with me too, he's dealt with the others."_  
"Well at least we have the building." Lucy said with a laugh, trying not to let the pain she was feeling get into her voice, and holding her hand against the bullet wound. She zoned out from the rest of the team focussing on ignoring the pain and trying to keep as much blood as possible from escaping.

"_Lucy_?" Jack asked and from the tone of his voice this wasn't the first time he had called for her. _"Lucy, answer me, are you there?"_

"Yeah." She breathed. "I'm here. What happened?"  
_"Owen had to kill the creature. He had no choice, it was going to crush us. We'll meet you round the front. He's stabilised Rhys."_

"Ok," Lucy replied, "I'll be there as soon as I can." She tried to stand but failed and called out in pain the minute she put any weight on her leg. "Might be a while, but I'll... argh... be there. Um, a bit of... bit difficult. But I'll be fine. I _am_ fine."

"_Lucy_!" Ianto said, worried _"What's wrong? You're not fine."_

"Will someone tell..." She hissed in pain as she tried to pull herself up again. "Ianto to listen to me, I'm fine. I'll just be a bit longer"

_"Ianto." _Jack interrupted, deciding that they had been trying for too long to get the couple back together using the softly softly approach, if this didn't work he was locking them in a room together. Besides the way that Lucy had acted when Ianto was in danger told all of them that she was obviously still in love with him _"Go find your girlfriend."_

"Honestly I. Am. Fine." She argued, before quickly adding "And I'm not his girlfriend"

_"Lucy you are _never_ fine, Roman Centurion ring a bell?"_ Ianto said sharply, _"Don't move, where are you?"_

"I haven't moved, that's the bit I'm struggling with." She said sarcastically, ignoring the first comment, knowing that he had a point. "Err... back of the main room, I've got boxes piled stupidly high to my left, I'm leaning against the wall. You'll probably notice Dale's dead body first."

"I've got the dead body." Ianto replied, "I'll be with you in a sec."

The rest of the team were now waiting out the front, Owen had patched up Rhys as best he could before they returned to the hub. They were waiting to hear why Lucy was 'fine' and why that meant she struggled with moving.

Ianto turned the corner and took a deep intake of breath, when he saw her and the blood on the floor.

"I've said it before Lu and I'll say it again, you have a very odd idea of what fine is."

"Shut up and help me stand." Ianto moved over to see quite how bad it was.

"What happened?"

"Hard to aim with shaking arms. My left thigh paid the price, now help me stand Welshman."

"I'll get Owen here."

"I don't need Owen, I'm fine."

"You've got a bullet in your leg, I would say that you need to see Owen and as you can't walk without my help you don't really have a choice."

"He forgot the damn pain relief anyway." Lucy said with a pained laugh. "He, can't help."

_"And while you're at it, sort out your relationship as well. We expect to see the Torchwood golden couple when you get out." _Gwen spoke in their ear.

Lucy groaned and refused to look at Ianto, he sighed and sat down next to her.

"Why don't you understand that I don't want Jack? You had something in this universe outside the job, you had me."

Lucy was still looking at the ground, deciding that the blood pouring out her leg was more fascinating to look at than Ianto's face, as he was waiting patiently for her answer. The pain that she was feeling from her leg diminished as she was forced to properly speak to Ianto about what had happened between them.

"I never really had you though Ianto. Because I know how happy you'll be, you're the favourite couple. Anyone who knows anything, knows that you and Jack belong together. I was being selfish when we were together, it's not fair on you - you deserve better."

"You said it yourself," Ianto tried, "you've changed things by simply being here. I'm never going to be happy with Jack, when I know I could have you."

"Please, please don't Ianto" Lucy begged, she was was still looking at the ground, her fingers now tracing patterns in the blood. "It's hard enough as it is, I just had to kill a man. I'm emotionally vulnerable at the moment."

Ianto could see he was getting through the wall that she had built up around herself these past few months and kept pushing at it.

"I love _you_, I want _you_, _you_ fix me better than Jack ever could. I want to come home from a night shift to _you_, I want to take _you_ to see my family, I want to have _you_ as my date to Gwen's wedding and dance with _you_ all night." He lifted her head and looked straight into her eyes. "I want my universe back Lucy. It's dull otherwise"

Lucy couldn't help herself, she looked up at him and once she was she she wouldn't stop. She needed to drink in the sight of him and confirm to herself that he was ok after nearly being shot and killed earlier, a few bruises but ok.

"You... you love me?" She breathed.

He couldn't help but laugh,

"Of course I do. I've hated nearly every moment since Jack came back, because I lost _you._"

"But you said... said it's more fun with him around. And he came back for you."

"But I turned him down Lu, I swear. He asked me on that date and I said no, because I was happy with you. Let me prove it to you Lucy. Please."

"I'm scared," She said finally, still looking into his eyes, "I won't be able to give you up again Yan."

"I don't want you to." He said quickly "I'm not leaving you Lucy, I'm not a loan, I'm yours. You're far better than I ever deserve. You're not just some 'fucked up girl' from a different universe. You're amazing, everything you've done in your life – Becky and your mum, your dad – I couldn't do that. I can't think of anyone who could. You did something so amazing while Jack was away that the Doctor wants to take you on the trip of a lifetime to say thanks. You've coped with being thrown into a different world brilliantly. I can't help but feel lucky at the trust you've given me. Do you know what Tosh told me?"

Lucy shook her head, the pain in her leg had disappeared as she focused more and more on the words that were being said.

"She told me she knew I was in love with you before I realised it and we even got together. When she had that pendant, from Mary, she could hear me talking about pain until you walked in and my thoughts lit up. You told me that night you loved me, and I tried to ignore it but I couldn't. I told myself you only said it because you were drunk and you didn't really mean it, even though I knew that was a lie. Come back to me Lucy..."

She tried one feeble argument but knew that it wouldn't work.

"I can't give you what you deserve Ianto, I'm not..."  
He kissed her, which shut her up instantly and caused all her objections to fail.

"Don't you dare Lucy Smith, you are all I need. You've got something to keep you in this world, me."

"Ok" She whispered, "I'm sorry Ianto."

"You're forgiven Lu, you're always forgiven as long as you always come back to me"

"You're annoying stupid and romantic sometimes." She smiled and moved so as to kiss him properly but in doing so she put weight on her leg and the pain returned at full strength instantly.

"ARGHH!" She cried out. Ianto immediately took the role of protective boyfriend.

"You ok Lu? We should have sorted out your wound first."

"I'm fine." She said with a slight wince, as she tried breathed heavily trying to pull the pain under control. "But I've got blood... on your suit. Maybe... maybe Owen should help, maybe."

Her eyes shut and if it wasn't for a fresh wave of pain as Ianto started to look at her wound they would have stayed shut and she would have fallen unconscious.

_"It's a bloody miracle." _Owen said and they both jumped, Lucy's was accompanied with more pain. They had forgotten that the rest of the team were listening to their conversation through the ear pieces, "_Not only have they finally admitted that they love each other and that the break up was stupid. Lucy __**actually**__ thinks she might need help. I mean a bullet in your leg, is clearly nothing of importance."_

"Shut up Owen" Ianto snapped as he continued to have a proper look at the wound, "It's a fairly clean wound. Quite a lot of blood lost though. But – oh brilliant – she's drawn a sun in it, of course I mean what else would you do with blood from a bullet wound but draw a sun?! The bullet is still in her leg." He moved so he was in a position to help her get up while putting as little amount of weight on her left leg as possible. She shifted again and this time not making a sound the wave of pain, remembering every technique she had used in her previous world, but she knew that Ianto had spotted it, the flinch on her face. "Come on" He said "I'll carry you."

Before she could say anything against the idea he picked her up in a bridal lift and walked out, stepping neatly over the dead body.

"What about your suit?" She asked as they passed the body of the space whale they had tried to save.

"It will wash." Ianto replied, "It's not rare me washing blood out of my suits, you know that as well as me."

They quickly joined the others out front. Lucy smiled weakly at them.

"Ianto, put her in the back of the van. It's flat and I can work from there."

Lucy winced as her boyfriend placed her where Owen showed him.

"Well it hit an artery" Owen said after a quick inspection. "Somehow you didn't manage to break your leg. Don't know how. The fact the bullet is still in your leg is why you're still conscious and possibly alive. It slowed down the loss of blood enough, although you still lost more that I'm happy with." He ripped his shirt to use it as a bandage. "Honestly between yourself and Rhys... You are bloody lucky I'm such a good doctor." Lucy looked up and waved at Rhys who had his arm in a makeshift sling and a bloodstain on his shirt. He smiled back at her.

Lucy refused to make a sound while Owen put pressure on her wound as he patched it up the best he could. However as she was still holding Ianto's hand, she gripped on that and hard as she could.

"Bloody hell Lu" Ianto complained, "You're going to break my hand." She relaxed her hold, but he just smiled at her.

"Right" Owen said sitting up as he finished, "I need to get Lucy and Rhys back to the hub and deal with their wounds. Rhys should be fine, the bullet went straight through him, but I still need to patch things up, but as he's conscious and moving about by himself, I'm not overtly worried as it missed anything major. Lucy still has a bullet in her leg, which I need to get out as soon as possible and it's almost definitely more serious, as I can't be certain it missed anything and she lost a lot of blood. So two lovely operations for me to perform – not how I planned on spending the evening. Also new rule, from now on if you are injured in any way you are not allowed to a) say you're fine and b) not tell me instantly" They all knew the rules were mainly for Lucy but it made sense, they were all susceptible to not telling the medic about their injuries in the middle of a mission.

"How are we getting back to the hub?" Tosh asked Jack looked around.

"We take different cars from here. Tosh, you, me, Gwen and Rhys will take one. Owen you drive yourself, Ianto and his lovely girlfriend. We'll meet you back in the hub." Jack answered and everyone quickly did as he said.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was not happy and she made sure that the others knew about it.

"That Fucking hurt Owen, couldn't you at least make sure you drive fairly sensibly. Injured person in the back here."

"I'm trying to get you back to the hub as quickly as possible." Owen replied,

"Well fine I'll just shut up then, seeing as you couldn't give a wet slap about your patient" She said leaning against the window, she didn't feel brilliant and the idea of having a nap while they were on their way back to the hub sounded like a brilliant one.

Owen, looked behind him at Lucy and sighed he knew he was going to regret what he said next but he said it anyway.

"Don't stop talking, I need to know you are conscious at all times."

"Well fuck." Lucy sighed, "That's not bloody fair, I mean, why shouldn't I have the right to be silent? Criminals have the fucking right to be silent and yet I don't. That means you've taken away my rights to the point where I am less worthy than a fucking criminal. AND MY LEG FUCKING HURTS."

"I know your leg hurts" Owen said as calmly as he could glaring at Ianto who was smirking but otherwise staying silent. "That's because it has a bullet in it which nicked your artery. And that's why I'm driving this quickly, because I need to get you back to the hub so I can seal up the artery and get the bullet out."

"But you said I wasn't allowed to stop speaking, you even removed my right to silence and then the new rules said I had to tell you when I hurt myself and I'm not allowed to say I'm fine. So I'm just following the rules, some dick head who can't even hold a gun properly shot me in the fucking leg, which is now fucking painful all because we wanted to rescue a bloody large space whale thing that they were dissecting alive to use as general meat. However, there is a good side to all of that."

"What?" The medic asked thinking that it would be that she and Ianto were now back together.

"I got a nice new gun." She pulled the gun from out of her pocket and started playing with it. "Bit heavier than my normal one. I like it, I shall call it Cecil and he shall be my friend. I've forgiven him for shooting me."

Ianto raised an eyebrow at Owen.

"Are you sure there was no pain relief and she's not high?"

They drove over a road bump, and Lucy's mood dropped back down again.

"OW FOR FUCK SAKE OWEN THAT FUCKING HURT, FUCKING SHITTING HELL AND BOLLOCKS FOR GOOD MEASURE." Lucy shouted in pain and Owen didn't bother to reply to either comment.

"How much bloody further Owen?"

"Nearly there, in central Cardiff in another couple of minutes." Lucy was not the only one grateful for this, Owen was determined to never repeat this experience.

"Rassilon's saggy balls this hurts. You'd better be a bloody good doctor Owen, to make up for the fact you FUCKING FORGOT THE FUCKING PAIN RELIEF."

"Look I'm sorry, but it wasn't high on my bloody agenda and I used up everything they had on the Space Whale."

"You're the FUCKING DOCTOR IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIGH ON YOUR BLOODY AGENDA. AND FUCK THAT HURT DO YOU HAVE TO TURN CORNERS SO DAMN SHARPLY?"

"Listen I've said I'm sorry. And yes, there's another one coming up."

"BASTARD." Lucy shouted.

"You kiss that dirty mouth?" He said sarcastically to Ianto

"IF YOU DON'T DO A DAMN GOOD JOB GETTING THIS BLOODY BULLET OUT OF ME OWEN I'LL FUCKING CASTRATE YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DRIVE."

They turned into the hub car park where Jack and Tosh were waiting next to the SUV.

"Gwen's taken Rhys into the hub already." Tosh explained to Owen as he got out.

"Never again Jack." Owen said severely, "I am never driving an injured Lucy ever again." He opened the door, "Change of rules, once I know you are injured you are to go back to pretending you're fine. I'm not going through anything like that journey ever again."

"Well once you've got this fucking bullet out of my leg, things will be alright again." Lucy growled. She had discovered during the journey that if she could put her energy into being angry she could ignore the pain and the lure of blackness that kept creeping up on her and took longer and longer to shake away each time it appeared. "And it's your fucking fault for forgetting the fucking pain relief!"

"She has got a point" Jack pointed out, "Who are you dealing with first, Lucy or Rhys?"

"Lucy." Owen replied instantly, "Her injury's are a hell of a lot worse", Lucy pulled herself up and tried to pull herself out of the car but Ianto picked her up first. "For Christ's sake Lucy. Let Ianto carry you, as you continually told us throughout the drive - your leg fucking hurts because a fucking bullet is in it. Why the hell would you try to walk on it?"

Lucy shrugged.

"I dunno. But you've said I can go back to being fine again."

Owen looked despairingly at Jack.

"Next time she's injured she can go to a bloody hospital. It was the patient bit that I didn't like about being a doctor. Much better when they are already dead."

"It can't have been that bad." Tosh laughed but stopped when she saw Ianto's nod.

"Oh trust us Tosh, it really was. I mean I love her to pieces but still..."

"Hey!"

Jack decided to intervene before things could get worse.

"Ok, so let's get you back into the hub and give you some pain relief and get you under so Owen can take this bullet out."

"Fine. Owen?"

"What?"

"Have I got my rights back?"

"Yes you can shut up now."

"Good." They had just started walking into the hub when Lucy spoke again.

"Owen?"

"Yeah?" He asked wearily

"Can I pass out now my leg really fucking hurts?" She said quietly and they could hear the effort and the pain in her voice.

"Wait till I put you under the anaesthetic and then you can pass out." He replied seriously, "Ianto keep jogging her if it looks like her eyes are going to shut. I want her to stay awake for as long as possible. The longer she stays awake the better and the less serious it means her wound is. You're stubborn Lucy, so I need you to continue to be stubborn against the pain for a little while longer."

Lucy gave him a small smile and forced her eyes open.

Lucy tried to stay awake. She really did but unfortunately only managed to get as far as the corridor into the main area of the hub. The mixture of the darkness that had been lurking in the corner of her eyes and the pain from being jostled with every step that Ianto took became too much. Her eyes fell shut again and she didn't have the energy to try and open them again

She didn't hear Ianto worriedly calling her name and try to shake her awake. Neither did she hear Owen shouting for help and for Tosh to get the medbay set up for an operation and for Gwen to get two of the beds set up, one for Lucy for after the op and one for Rhys for before. Rhys' injury needed surgery but it wasn't life threatening or even potentially threatening now he wasn't loosing blood. Lucy was not so lucky. But the 23 year old did not know any of this, her world was black and for once her mind was quiet.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Lucy opened her eyes, it took her a while to work out where she was. It was only when she tried to move and a stab of pain travelled up from her leg that she remembered what had happened and realised she was in one of the rarely used recovery rooms on the second floor of the hub. She had been shot and had killed a man. Lucy wasn't sure what to think about that, she knew what to think about being shot - it damn well hurt and she had no intention to do it again. But she had killed a man, and that meant something, it wasn't an alien that was hurting people; he was just an ordinary human trying to make money by using an innocent creature. She decided that the best thing to do was just to put all feelings attached to it to the back of her mind and try not to think about it. The same way she did with anything she was unsure about.

The door opened and Ianto walked in quietly with a mug of coffee in his hands, looking exhausted. When he saw Lucy was awake he grinned at her and Lucy was reminded of the nights they spent watching films, playing games and just talking and enjoying each other's company back at the flat.

"How do you feel?" he asked as he sat down on the chair next to her and grabbed her hand

"Like I've been shot" Lucy said blandly, she didn't want to pull her hand out of Ianto's but Ianto could see her try to put the walls back up. She could ignore what she had said earlier, blame it on the pain and continue to push him away.

"Don't Lu." He said simply squeezing her hand, she looked up at him and he continued. "Don't lock me out again."  
"But Jack..." Lucy tried feebly, she had to try but she knew it was worthless.

"But Jack nothing. He's our boss and our friend but nothing more than that. I don't care if that would be different if you weren't here because you _are_ here. Ok?"

Lucy smiled weakly and gave a small nod.

"Yeah ok."

"Good. And now we are back together please never put me through the worry you've just done ever again."

Lucy was confused, at first she thought he was talking about the past three months, but he hadn't been worried then, he'd been more annoyed and angry than worried. Ianto saw the confusion and sighed, he took a gulp of coffee before explaining.

"You nearly died Lu."  
"What?" Lucy couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her, she couldn't die, not yet - there was still more to do, lives to save, people to meet.

"He might have only hit your leg but he hit an artery, you nearly bleed out. Owen had a hard time patching you up and even when he did we didn't know if you were going to..." He trailed off and Lucy knew what he was going to say. She had been told the same thing herself once, and had spent 5 weeks sitting next to a bed, waiting and hoping that Becky would wake up. Not knowing was the worst feeling in the world.

She squeezed his hand.

"Hey, I'm still here and breathing. Takes more than a shit shot to kill me."

"Don't I know it." Ianto gave a small laugh.

"How long was I out?"

"20hours" Ianto sighed, "damn longest 20 hours of my life."

"Well, I'm awake now and we can work things out. I just need more of that magic stuff from Owen."  
"I'll get him for you." Ianto said, rising from his seat and walking towards the door.

"Thanks, and I am sorry Ianto." Lucy said. She knew it was something she was going to have to say many times. "I just thought..."  
"I know. You were wrong, but I know what you thought. But we'll work through it, next time just talk to me though." He smiled at her and left the room, leaving Lucy to her own thoughts.

**A/N: So I did a THING. Lucy got shot, but the moment you guys were all asking for (and I'm not exagerating here, you really were all asking when this would happen) has happened - Lucy and Ianto are back together, it's not necessarily going to be easy for the pair of them but at least they are a pair again.**

**I'll be back next week with the first half of Adam.**

**As always I love everyone whose reading this and those who review a little bit more so please don't forget to review**

**Rea**


	39. Chapter 39 - Adam, Part 1

Lucy and Ianto walked into the Tourist office together, Ianto immediately opened up the shop and checked the CCTV of the hub to see who was in and check if there was any issues with the weevils over night.

"Who's that?" Ianto asked, pointing at the screen.

"Who?" Lucy asked as she walked over to the computer screen rather than sorting out the front of house pamphlets and updating them.

"Talking to Jack as though they've known each other for years." Ianto replied.

Lucy looked at the screen and sighed .

"I know this one. I'm going to need you to trust me and follow my lead ok?"

Ianto looked straight at her, "As long as it's not you deciding who I should fall in love with, I trust you with everything. You know that Lucy, what's going on?"

"Nothing." She replied with a sigh. "It's just going to be a tough couple of days is all. That's Adam, he works for Torchwood."

"No he doesn't." He replied still slightly confused.

"He does now, be suspicious of him but not overtly, you need to give him a chance to touch your skin as quickly as possible, don't mention anything about never seeing him before, nothing to make him suspicious. Please."

"Ok, I trust you." He kissed her, "although I don't know why."

"You never will" She said with a smile, "and trust me, that's a good thing."

"Sometimes I think I'll never be able to understand you." Ianto said with a small laugh, "and I think that's a good thing. I'll never be bored with you and there's always something else for me to find out."

Lucy gently slapped him.

"You need to stop being so stupidly romantic Ianto."

"Sure." He laughed some more, "Are you finished sorting up here out? Cause you're on first shift upstairs today, so you can finish up later."

"I'm done for now." Lucy replied with a shrug as they started going through the corridor. "I've got a lot of paperwork to do today. So I'll work on that and when I say I've got a lot of paperwork, I mean Jack shoved loads to the side last week so I thought I'd get as much of that done as possible for him, cause he'll never get round to it. I've also got my call to the Super and I want to check in on the theatres and see what shows they've got etc, and if they'll offer up any discount."

"Sounds like a plan." He commented

"I thought so." She shrugged, "I've got nothing else to do until Owen lets me go out into the field so I figure our cover story should be the best it damn well can be, seeing as legally we need it to work as an actual tourist office, I'm sure Jack could work around it and we have been, but I don't want to continue to do the paperwork that comes with ignoring them. I want to speak to Jack about actually employing people just to work the front desk. It'd mean we don't have to shut it randomly when something happens. I feel bad every time I see tourists needing help while we run off, it's not their fault."

"You know why you can't go out into the field." Ianto said as gently as he could but still losing his patience with her, she brought this topic of conversation up at least twice a day, "You decided to get a bullet in your leg!"

"Humph" Lucy said jokingly before opening the cog door. "I'm fine that was over a month ago!"

They got into the main part of the hub.

"It's just us." Lucy called, "Hi Jack." She gave Jack a hug and then moved onto to Adam, "Errr... Hi?"

"Morning." Adam smiled at her and pulled her in for a hug.

Lucy smiled at him, although she thought she heard him whisper the word 'remember' into her ear but she ignored it.

"I'm upstairs working on paperwork all day but you still need to go down to the range and practice, otherwise you are not going out with a live weapon."

Ianto gave her an odd look and then shook his hand out,

"How do you want your coffee?"

Adam took his hand and shook it.

"I'll have my normal, Ianto, or have you forgotten it? You've been making it for me for the past couple of years."

"I remember, just wondering if you wanted something different." And with that he kissed Lucy and started towards the coffee machine.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was still working in the Tourist Office when Gwen walked in with a huge smile on her face,

"Hiya!" She said grinning at Lucy

Lucy couldn't help but smile back, she had been bored in the office having completed all her paperwork days ago and now she'd done most of the work Jack had been ignoring as well, it would be good to finally gossip with one of her best friends again.

"Hi Gwen, how was Paris?"

"Lovely" The Welshwoman replied, although she gave her a weird look as though Lucy being nice to her was unexpected. "Nice weather, great company, gorgeous city..."

"urgh don't remind me. While you've been enjoying sunny France I've been stuck in a tourist office in wet Wales." Lucy groaned.

"You still not allowed to go out on the field?" Gwen asked sympathetically and Lucy shook her head.

"Nope, lost the crutches the day you left but Owen still won't let me out. He's also only letting me into the shooting range for half an hour a day. Says I should sit down and rest it. What does he think I've been doing?"

"I dunno, passionate and wild sex? You have just got back together with your boyfriend."Gwen said with a shrug

Lucy gave her an odd look, "This is _Owen_, I doubt he's thought of that, probably just that we're going out on continual romantic walks. He's a sweetie and my brother but he's only got eyes for Tosh and is a bit weedy. I'm only following his orders cause Ianto will shoot me himself if I don't."

Gwen looked at her a bit confused but didn't say anything.

"Anyway I'm going through, are you staying up here or coming down with me?"

"I'll come down." Lucy said, standing up from the desk and changing the sign on the door to _'back in five minutes'_ "I could do with another coffee. Plus I've got paperwork to give Jack."

They walked down to the hub in silence, Lucy was still hobbling slightly and Gwen decided, wisely, not to mention it.

"...Owen you can help." Jack was saying as they entered the main room

"Happy to" The doctor replied

"Adam, I know how much you love audits."

"It's got to be done." Adam replied as he sat down in his chair which Owen had just vacated

"If you could..."

"Go through the investigation reports, find out when they might have come through the rift."

"You ok with that?" Jack asked

"I have been for the last three years." Adam said with a smirk which faltered slightly when he spotted Gwen as she put her coat on the back of her chair.

"You're late." Jack said trying to be stern with Gwen but still smiling at her, it was good to have her back.

"Yes, Paris was lovely thank you." Gwen said with a smirk, her face fell completely as she spotted Adam. "Who the hell is this?"

Everyone looked at each other confused, why did Gwen not recognise a member of the team? Adam had been there before all of them.

"Just because that's what I said to you on your first day." Adam said getting up from the chair, "Remember?"

"Sorry couldn't resist." Gwen said with a grin, "Come here, you! Good to see you." She walked over to her computer and logged in, "Hey Tosh. You're looking good."

"Thanks." Tosh replied, "you too."

"Great now if we could all get back to work." Jack interrupted , "Lucy is there any particular reason you are down here and not in the tourist office?"

"I got bored and wanted to talk to Gwen?" Lucy said with a shrug but passed over the paperwork, "And I've also completed most of your paperwork from last week that you never got round to doing."

"You're a star." Jack said taking it off her,

"I know. I'm also taken Captain."

"Well if you ever get bored," The time traveller flirted back, "you know where I am."

Lucy looked up at Ianto and pretended to think about it before shrugging.

"I'm glad you feel comfortable enough around us to admit you want a threesome Jack but I'm not sure if Ianto would be up to it quite as much as you are."

"Careful that's harassment" Ianto replied with a smirk

"You spoil all my fun Ianto." Jack said jokingly before turning serious. "However as much as I am grateful that my paperwork is done I don't suppose you would mind talking me through it so that when UNIT call to annoy more or when I call the Royal family to give my report I sound like I know what I'm talking about."

"Sure." Lucy kissed Ianto on the check, "If I'm not back in a few hours for my next caffeine fix, presume I've been kidnapped and stage a heroic rescue so I may swoon into your arms. I want a sword fight and everything."

Ianto laughed and kissed her back before going back to his own work, leaving Tosh, Owen, Adam, Lucy and Jack to get on with what they had been doing earlier.

"Lucy" Owen said awkwardly "you err... you do know that... well that you shouldn't be putting too much pressure on that leg. I mean... I know I shouldn't interfere in your love life... because it's yours and I'm glad that you and Ianto are happy together again... but well as a doctor..."

"Don't worry Owen, it's all picnics and romance until I get the all clear. That going to be happening any day soon?" Lucy said laughing.

"Soon enough. I'll do another check up tomorrow." He turned to walk away but thought better of it, "And Lucy... I'm glad... I mean like I said I know it's not my place... but... well... I just... well you're like my sister aren't you and I really didn't want to have to worry about... yes well..." And with that he blushed and quickly walked down the stairs into his lab.

"He's sweet isn't he?" Lucy said slightly mockingly when Owen was out of ear shot. Tosh shrugged

"Annoying sometimes though."

"Yeah but he means it with care. What do you think Adam?"

"I think I'm probably best staying out of this conversation." He said raising his hands in defence and showing that he wanted to stay out of it.

"Me too." Jack agreed, "Now Lucy about that paperwork..."

"Lead on." Lucy shrugged, "It's not like I've got anything else to do."

"You're lucky you know." Jack said as they walked towards his office, Jack being careful to walk slightly slower than normal so it would cause no problems for Lucy and also that she wouldn't notice what he was doing. "You were almost killed with that bullet and it was only a month and a half ago. Anywhere apart from Torchwood and you wouldn't be back at work."

"I know." Lucy replied, "but Owen's got some advanced tech so it's pretty much fine. I'm just bored sitting in the office. I don't know how normal people manage it. I want to be chasing weevils."

"You'll change your mind about that once I've got you on weevil duty again."

"Maybe." Lucy mused, "but maybe not. Weevil hunting's not too bad. Or at least not as bad as the others make out. I just want to go back to normal again, not have to worry about this stupid bullet wound."

"I'm glad you're ok enough to feel that way." Jack said "But for a while we all honestly thought you were going to die. It upset all of us and Ianto was distraught you can't have a go at him for being worried about you. Just think about it a bit and maybe ease up on him. He's not said anything directly to any of us, but I think your continual moaning is getting to him."

"I know, it's just easier to ignore I suppose." Lucy sighed. "And I'm bored in the tourist office all day, even though I'm actually getting all the damn paperwork done. I just need everyone to stop fussing about it and me. You know what I'm like Jack,"

"You're our friend Lucy. We don't like it when you get hurt"

"I'm fine Jack, can we please just leave it?" Lucy said shrugging awkwardly.

"Ok," Jack replied with a sigh, hoping he'd at least got through to his youngest employee a bit "Well I promise the minute Owen gives you the all clear for the field I'll send you weevil hunting."

"Ianto and I already have plans." Lucy replied with a smirk which Jack matched.

"The day after then, if you're fully recovered from you 'plans'." He replied as he sat down on his desk before looking at the work that Lucy had done for him.

"Deal," Lucy said, "So before I talk you through _your_ work, how much did you actually think about before you shoved it to the side?"

He gave her a slightly sheepish grin that she took to mean nothing before sighing and starting to go through it with him, being careful to point out the bits that UNIT were going to kick up a fuss about.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

A couple of hours later Lucy and Jack appeared from his office, Ianto was standing outside with two mugs of coffee and a foam sword.

"I thought I'd try with the whole gallant knight thing but I couldn't find anything that would work. And then I remembered the present you'd bought David for his birthday..."

"That you forgot to give him" Lucy interrupted

"Yes that I forgot to give him, anyway it was still in the hub, so I was wondering if it would do."

Lucy took the mugs out of his hands. Once she'd passed them to Jack she snogged Ianto.

"I'd say it would, if it gets that reaction." Jack laughed behind them, Lucy swore at him and smiled up at her boyfriend.

"What was that for?" Ianto asked, "Just so I know to do it again."

"Nothing." Lucy shrugged, "Only we'd spotted Tosh and Adam kissing and Jack reminded me that even though you're annoying me with all this over protectiveness that I did nearly die, so that's my apology for getting annoyed with you about it as well as the fact you look damn sexy holding a sword, even if it is foam. Now," she untangled herself from Ianto's arms. "I'm going down to the shooting range, and I know" she said before Ianto could remind her, "half an hour and if my leg starts to hurt I need to stop." She gave him one small kiss before walking down into the deeper areas of the hub.

She came out of the shooting range exactly half an hour later, without needing to be prompted by Ianto, like he had been doing every day.  
"I would say I'm impressed." He commented waiting outside the range for her, "but that would sound patronising wouldn't it?"

"Just a tad. Have I missed the end of the world in this past half hour?"  
"Owen got Tosh a rat screen wipe, it's cute enough but of course she turned him down. She said she'd called it Owen because it was a rodent like thing watching her while she worked"

"Ouch." Lucy winced, "he's been trying for years. He should really stop at this point."

Their conversation was interrupted by Jack shouting down at them.

"LUCY! Can you come tell this idiot UNIT drone that Torchwood aren't under his control and that they have no say on what we decide to do or not do."

"You'd better go." Ianto said and Lucy groaned

"NOW LUCY!" Jack shouted again, "before I lose my temper with him."

"I'm coming." She shouted up the stairs, "see you later Ianto. You still up for the cinema this evening?" He nodded.

"I've got work to do in the archives so I'll see you again just before we clock off."

"Love you." Lucy said as she started walking towards Jack.  
"You too." Ianto replied as he walked on the stairs as well but in the other direction.

"Colonel Howeth" He heard Lucy say as she took the phone off their boss, "Yes I understand..." Ianto smiled before continuing down to the archives.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy and Ianto were just about to go into the screen when Lucy's phone went off. They both sighed and walked out of the queue with a slight longing look at the cinema.

"Never a normal life with this job." Lucy commented before answering the phone. "What do you want? It's our night off"

Her face went pale and she quickly started walking out of the complex, fingering Cecil.

"We'll be there in five minutes." She said before hanging up

"What's happened?" Ianto asked as they raced back to the car.

"Someone's broken into Gwen's flat."

"Shit."

"Yeah, according to Jack she sounds pretty freaked out." Ianto quickly put the car in gear and drove as fast as he could to Gwen's flat without breaking any laws.

They got to Gwen's flat the same time as Jack and Adam and Jack buzzed up.

"Gwen it's us. Ianto and Lucy are here too."

"Come up." They quickly ran up the stairs, "in here Jack!" Gwen called and when they burst into the room they didn't see whatever it was that they expected to see.

Rhys was standing there looking confused and annoyed and his girlfriend's gun was trained on him. Lucy quickly lowered Cecil and moved towards Gwen trying to get her to release the gun as well.

"What's going on?" Jack asked

"You tell me. Look" Gwen said picking up one of the photos of the couple that were dotted around the lounge, "he's put photos of us up. He must have done it while I was at work." Lucy used this opportunity to pull the gun out of Gwen's hand. "He's deluded! He keeps saying he's my boyfriend. Lucy give me back the gun." She begged slightly but the Torchwood agent just shook her head, confused at the whole thing.

"He is. It's **Rhys**." Jack said also lowering his gun confused by the whole situation.

"I've never seen him before in my life."

"You've been with him for years." Jack said walking forward

"SEE!" Rhys shouted,

"But he... he grabbed me Jack. Who knows what he was going to do?"

"Probably kiss you." Lucy pointed out. "It's what Ianto does to me whenever he grabs me from behind. For pity sake Gwen this guy took a bullet for you."

"But I... I don't remember it."

"Space Whale, those guys were going to shoot you and Rhys jumped in the way. Hit his left shoulder. You got pissed at Owen for treating me first, even though I nearly died. Surely you remember that?"

"I... don't I..."

"How can you say that? What have you done to her?" Rhys asked, finally losing his temper.

"Nothing." Jack replied

"Oh come on. I know what kind of sick games you play. Pills that make you forget. Are you phasing me out so you can have her all to yourself?"

He shoved Jack and Jack shoved him back.

"Stay away from him!" Gwen shouted trying to take the gun off Lucy again but failing, Lucy held Gwen back, ignoring the slight stab of pain that came from her leg from putting that amount of pressure on it.

"We're engaged." Rhys shouted at Gwen, "I bought you the bloody ring that's on your finger." He said before seemingly losing all his fight, "I love you Gwen." He said tiredly sagging against Jack.

"Why don't you come with me and Lucy to the hub?" Adam said stepping forward

"Who the hell are you?" Rhys asked

"He's one of us." Jack replied before Adam continued,

"We can get Owen to check you out while you have one of your 'proper girl talks' with Lucy about all of this and Ianto and Jack can stay here and keep an eye on Rhys."

Gwen nodded slowly and started to walk out with Lucy and Adam before turning back.

"Don't let him go. If he comes after me again, I'll kill him."

Rhys' face fell and Lucy quietly but sternly said.

"You'll not be killing Rhys on my watch Gwen. Two reason. One, I know you're completely and utterly in love with him. And two, I'm removing all your weapons and your permission to remove them from the hub."

"You can't do that" Gwen started complain as they moved down the stairs.

"I think you'll find that as the weapons expert, I kinda can." Lucy replied seriously, "And anyway, even if technically I can't I doubt Jack's going to disagree with me right now."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Back at the hub Owen quickly got to work examining Gwen.

"Right, well, no signs of long term damage as far as I can see. Or alien intervention. But, I must be missing something. I'm sorry but it's a mystery to me why you can't remember Rhys."

"Jack's set up the camera." Lucy called from her workstation. "Come up here Gwen, see if this helps."

"Where did you meet?" Jack's voice said from off screen

"Err college, fancied her from the moment I saw her. Not just her looks, you know. I mean she is a looker." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, this wasn't how he'd been expecting his evening to go.

"Tell me about your first kiss."

"Erm, in the supermarket. I was going to make her spag bol and... then I realised, didn't I? It's got bloody garlic. Can't kiss a girl with garlic breath." He laughed and Lucy smiled, "And then we were in the queue and..."

"Do you remember any of this?" Lucy asked quietly at the look of concentration in Gwen's face.

"Sort of. It's like... I'm seeing what he's saying, but I don't remember how I felt."

"I promise that's your fiancé." Lucy said, "You called me the minute he proposed. I couldn't make anything out down the phone being you were shouting so much. And then when I finally understood you were asking if I would be your bridesmaid I started shouting back down the phone. Ianto pretended to moan about the neighbours but he didn't really care either. Us lot all decided to cover your shifts for the next couple of days and Rhys took you to the Isle of Man, simply because he could and because neither of you had ever been there."

"Your memory is just playing tricks on you." Adam said from where he was standing behind them, Gwen gave a small nod feeling better from their support but still confused before turning back to the screen.

"-she starts to laugh, calls me Rhys the rant. And then she kissed me, right there in the queue. And I thought then, Jack, I thought "I'm going to marry this bloody mad woman even if it kills me.""

Lucy subtly paused the screen as Gwen looked down at the ring.

"We'll leave you to think about that while we get on with some work. I'll tell you something though Gwen, you've got a good bloke in Rhys and even if all your previous memories of him are lost I reckon he loves you enough to start from the beginning again. It'll be hard, but he'd do it. Don't throw a good thing away just because you don't remember it."

Lucy got to work on her laptop on the sofa, determined not to mention that technically she had just been out in the field and her leg was fine, so surely she could get back to normal duties soon. It had ached a bit but that she was pretty sure that was normal and not anything to worry about, she had been in a minor fight with Gwen for the gun after all.

Five minutes later Gwen walked over to her.

"What are you doing?"

"Not playing a computer game." Lucy said minimising the game of minesweeper and looking at reports again.

"I don't mean now, I mean why were you there earlier?"

Lucy looked at her confused, so Gwen elaborated

"I mean, you still shouldn't be in the field. You didn't know what you were going to find at my flat." Lucy grinned sheepishly in response to Gwen's accusation.

"Yeah I'm hoping they forget that. But honestly I think they just forgot or at that moment in time didn't care. You're my best friend Gwen – ignoring Ianto – of course I'm going to come running when something potentially bad has happened to you. And something has happened, you've forgotten Rhys. It just wasn't the problem we thought it was when we turned up at your door guns blazing. We _are_ going to fix this Gwen."

"I know."

"Besides" Lucy continued more jokingly, "how can I be a bridesmaid if I let you kill the groom?"

Gwen cracked a smile before shuffling uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"Umm... I think I'd like to go home now please. And you're damn lucky I don't report you to Owen"

Owen looked up from where he was working and narrowed his eyes.

"Why should she be reported to me?"

"Um..." Gwen looked uncomfortable, she didn't really want to tell on her friend.

"Killer cramps" Lucy said quickly.

"I've... er... got some pain killers that might... well they might work..." the doctor replied going bright red. Lucy smiled reassuringly and tried not to laugh

"I'll keep that in mind Owen, thanks. Come on, we'll take Ianto's car and I'll take you back home. I want to make the most of him forgetting about that damn bullet."

As Lucy drove and they got closer to Gwen and Rhys' flat Gwen started getting more and more uncomfortable but Lucy forced her out of the car.

"You've got to face him at some point Gwen, now is as good a time as any."

"Well no. Actually I think I should wait a bit longer. I mean, I don't remember him."

"And you might not remember him later either so why put it off? It could be tonight helps you remember him or at least find out some of the reasons why you are so madly in love with him." She took the keys from Gwen and let them into the flat.

Jack, Ianto and Rhys turned round immediately and the two Torchwood agents moved to leave the house. Gwen grabbed Jack.

"Don't leave me."

"You'll be ok." Jack said with a smile.

"Rhys would never be able to hurt you." Lucy said from the doorway. "He knows he'll have me to answer to if he did."

"Since when did you two become buddy buddy?" Rhys asked and Lucy looked at him confused.

"Since her first day? Are you sure you've not hit your head and forgotten stuff as well Rhys? You may only have found out about Torchwood recently but Gwen introduced me to you ages ago." Rhys shook his head not willing to argue.

"Fine, if you say so. Today's been such a shock I must have just forgotten."

Lucy shrugged in agreement not noticing the flash of confusion that spread across Ianto's face as she did so. Ianto took Lucy's hand and after giving Gwen a small thumbs up they left the house, although it was still their night off neither of them felt like going home so they walked over to the car and the SUV with Jack.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Any idea what that was all about?" Jack asked Lucy who shrugged

"Owen's checking possible causes but he doesn't know. Some form of temporary amnesia but we have no clue what the cause might be."

Ianto looked down at his phone.

"Tosh has just texted me. There's a weevil sighted by the sewer in Rockall street."

Jack was staring into space and Lucy called his name a couple of times.

"Jack? Jack!"

"Can you see him?"

"Who?" Ianto asked confused

Jack looked back at the spot he'd been staring at before looking back at them.

"No one."

"So this weevil?" Lucy said deciding to ignore what had just happened and get the topic back to what they were going to do. Jack nodded.

"Ok I'll deal with it. Ianto you take Lucy home and then go back to the hub. I know it's your night off but I want as many people in the hub as possible, you can help Owen while he tries to find out what happened with Gwen. Lucy don't think I haven't noticed that you were in the field earlier and driving the car which I _know_ that Owen has said you're not allowed to do." Lucy's face fell as she spotted Ianto's angry, annoyed and disappointed look, Jack had evidently spotted it too because he continued. "But I'll leave your boyfriend to give you the bollocking for that. I don't think it would work as well coming from me. Owen's going to give you another full check up tomorrow to make sure that you haven't caused more damage. I'll go deal with the weevil."

Lucy slipped into the passenger seat of their car next to Ianto who silently started driving.

"Ianto?" She asked quietly, "Ianto please talk to me. Please."

"I thought you understood." He replied with no emotion in his voice, "Earlier today, you apologised for the way you've been getting annoyed at me. I thought you understood and **then** you went out into the field." His voice got louder and she winced, hearing the pain that he wasn't able to keep out of the end of it.

"There wasn't any danger." Lucy tried weakly

"You didn't know that!" Ianto said angrily before taking a deep breath trying to get his emotions under control again.

"I know"

"You didn't know that there was no danger Lucy." Ianto said again seriously.

"We thought that Gwen was in danger and reacted instinctively. In the heat of the moment Jack would have forgotten. And maybe I should have said something but I thought something was wrong with my best friend, it really didn't cross my mind. And then when I remembered I felt fine and I just didn't want to bring attention to it."

Ianto hit the steering wheel.

"DAMN IT LUCY. You almost died. That bullet nearly killed you."  
"I know."

"Do you actually understand it though?" Ianto asked, "I was almost forced to watch you die, just after we'd got back together and I'd told you that I loved you. Do you understand how that made me feel, if Owen wasn't such a damn good doctor and we didn't have advanced tech it would be me who would be currently signed off work, not you. And it would be due to grief. I lost all of my friends in London, I lost Lisa, I can't lose you as well, and especially not after I just got you back."

"Ianto, I..."

"I know I've been over protective but if this wasn't Torchwood you'd still be in a hospital _if_ you were alive and that's a BIG 'if'. So yes, I'm angry that you went out into the field and were driving, I'm also annoyed at Gwen and the fact she let you drive but that doesn't seem to matter to you."

"I just want thing to go back to normal" She said quietly as he pulled up outside their flat.

"We fight aliens for a living. We don't have a normal, it changes all the time and right now our normal is you not being in the field and not driving because you got shot."

He sighed and rested his head on the steering wheel, Lucy tentatively put her hand on his shoulder he froze but didn't pull away, she took it as a good sign.

"You go into the house and sleep." He said resignedly, "We'll talk about this more tomorrow when I'm not so angry. I'll sleep at the hub once I've finished work."

"Ianto." Lucy said her voice breaking as she forced herself to not cry, this was her fault and she had no right to be upset. "Please come home tonight."

"I just need some space." He replied, "I know why you did it, I just..." He sighed, "I'll see you tomorrow Cariad."

Lucy gave a small nod knowing that the term of affection meant she hadn't completely destroyed her relationship with her selfish actions.

"I love you Ianto and I am sorry. _Honestly_." She said placing a quick kiss on his cheek before getting out of the car.

Ianto just gave her a small tired smile and drove away.

**A/N: SORRY it's late, I was away for work and without internet. I only got back to my hostel a few hours ago and this is the first time I've been able to just sit down.**

**Anyway I hope this past week (and a bit) has been good for people and that they enjoy the long weekend from the Queen's offical (but not real) birthday. Please let me know what you think about the small changes I've (Adam) made to Lucy and Ianto. I wanted to make them different but still the same person so it was an interesting one to write - I tried making them completely different like Tosh and Owen but it didn't work.**

**See you next week - it will be on Friday, promise!**

**Rea**


	40. Chapter 40 - Adam, Part 2

**SORRY! I was away for work again**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I killed three girls" Ianto said "Strangled them"

"Stop kidding around" Jack said seriously

"I am serious"

"I murdered them in cold blood. I took their bodies..." he jumped and seemed to come to his senses, glancing over his shoulder as though expecting someone to jump out at him. "You have to lock me away. Before I turn on Lucy, before I turn on any of you. None of you are safe"

"Hey, hey, come here, come here" Jack grabbed him and tried to stop the younger man struggling "What's happened to you?"

Ianto collapsed in his arms and whispered.

"I'm a monster."

"I'm calling Lucy" Jack said as he pulled Ianto off him, "This isn't you, she'll agree with me and might know why."

Ianto grabbed the lapels of his great coat.

"No, don't." He begged "She can't know, she could be next. You need to lock me up before I kill her. I liked it Jack, the feel of their last struggling breaths under my hands."

"This is not you" Jack repeated harshly. "I'm going to text her and then we'll work out what's wrong and fix it."

He sent a quick text to Lucy simply telling her to come into the hub and that it was urgent. Less than a minute later he had a reply saying she was on her way and the two men sat in silence while they waited to her to join them.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ten minutes later Lucy ran into the hub, the cog door opening breaking the silence

"What wrong?" She asked breathlessly as she gently rubbed the bullet wound on her leg, _potentially_ Owen might be correct in keeping her off the field for another week or so. She noticed Ianto's pale sweaty face and quickly moved over to them,

"Ianto?" She placed her hands on his face so she could have a proper look at him, it also had the secondary advantage that even if he struggled he wasn't able to look away. "You look feverish but you don't have a temperature, I'm presuming this is why you texted me Jack? Apart from being angry at me he was fine when he dropped me off earlier."

The time traveller nodded. "

"He thinks he's killed three women." Jack explained

Lucy wasn't sure whether to laugh or not, but after a quick glance at Ianto she knew she had to take this serious.

"That's just stupid. Do you hear me. You haven't murdered anyone!"

"What I said." Jack agreed, Ianto hissed in annoyance and finally pulled himself away from Lucy.

"I remember it, they pleaded for me to stop but it only pushed me to make their pain last longer"

"I don't believe you." Lucy said refusing to break eye contact with him, "I've never felt safer than when I'm with you." Ianto scoffed but she continued, "Never, Ianto."

"You need to lock me up. I'll kill you." He moaned.

"No." She said simply, "You won't. For a start no one whose murdered those women like you claim and who liked it would either warn me, want to be locked up or wouldn't have already killed me. And secondly you hold me pretty much every night when I have nightmares and on the nights when you're not holding me I'm holding you. I still refuse to tell you pretty much anything about them, but you don't mind. I _love_ you Ianto. And I am sorry for going out into the field and driving today, I really am, you're right I hadn't really thought about what my almost dying meant. But you know what I'm like, shove all the difficult emotions to the back of my mind because it's easier. But you make me better Ianto, you force me to think about those things. And I hate it I really do but it doesn't matter because I know that you are doing it because you love me and you want me to be happy. And while I'm being honest annoyingly Owen _potentially_ may have a point, my leg really aches right now to the point where I might actually take some of those tablets that he gave me. And I drove into the hub and I know I shouldn't have done because I'm not allowed to drive right now but I couldn't get a taxi quickly enough and Jack said that there was some sort of emergency concerning you and I needed to be here as quickly as possible. And I was running and that probably wasn't a good idea either."

Jack decided now was the time to slip away and leave the couple alone. So he started setting up a lie detector which meant he was close enough to keep an eye on them but wasn't able to hear their conversation or properly focus on them.

"You shouldn't" Ianto replied "I murdered..."

"We had a similar conversation a month and a half ago when I had a bullet in my leg and thought you should be with Jack. Only then it was the other way round, I thought you shouldn't, wouldn't and couldn't love me. And look at us now," Lucy said with a slight smile, "back together and _happy_. I wouldn't trade you for the world Ianto because I love you. You remind me of that conversation every time I bitch about not being allowed in the field and when I say I'm fine. And because of you Ianto I can tell you that right now," she had a quick look to check that Jack wasn't within hearing distance, "right now..." She took a deep breath before saying quietly "I can tell you that I'm not fine. My leg hurts and I want some painkillers, I'm scared shitless that you'll dump me because I'm selfish and I don't notice when I push you too far because I'm only thinking about myself and I'm also scared because you seem to think you've killed people. Now none of that is good but surely the fact I CAN tell you is good enough for now at least. You try getting me to say that to another of the others and I will shut tighter than a clam but I trust and love you enough that I don't mind telling you."

Ianto smiled and Lucy knew she was getting through to him.

"I love you for all your slight foibles, your 'OCDness' and the fact that you have taught me to have a tidy room. The way you need to organise the DVDs in a certain way and the fact that although you can cook stupidly complex meals and you need burn the pan every time you try to cook a white sauce; you don't think I'm fucked up and that I got a job in Torchwood by pure chance and the fact I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." She turned fully serious now, "Trust me Ianto, the person I love isn't capable of killing people in cold blood unless they had hurt your family. And if that was the case I'd be right next to you. But most importantly you're not capable of enjoying it."

"But I remember..." Ianto moaned trying to find fault in Lucy's argument, the logical part of his brain was screaming at him to listen to her but he couldn't help but ignore it due to the memories of him doing these terrible things at the front of his mind.

"And that's where this comes in" Jack said joining the conversation again and pointing to the machine he had been setting up. "Best lie detector on the planet. If something's untrue the light turns red."

"We're going to prove it Ianto." Lucy said

"I'm a killer" Ianto cried, the screams of the woman he had killed still going round and round his head

"You're not. Let us try to prove it to you." Jack said sternly, "sit in the chair and put these just below your elbow."

Ianto sat in the chair and quickly rolled up his sleeves and attached himself to the machine, Lucy sat next to him and grabbed his hand for support Ianto tried to pull away but she wouldn't let him.

"It's not going to disrupt the results if I hold his hand is it Jack?" She asked refusing to let Ianto pull away, Jack just shook his head.

"Ok, go."

Ianto took a deep breath.

"My hands on her throat." The hand that Lucy wasn't holding made a gripping motion and he seized up as though he was trapped in the memory, "And it felt so good. Squeezing the life out of her." He hissed before seemingly coming back to himself and seeing that the light was still green. Jack refused to catch Lucy's eye and just looked at the machine. "It reads as truth." Ianto moaned. "I told you, I'm a murderer"

Lucy squeezed his hand tightly.

"I'm not in love with a killer whatever that piece of crap says. Best lie detector on the planet my arse."

"I don't believe it either." Jack said looking up again, "tell me about the second girl"

Ianto whimpered as he forced himself to remember, Lucy looked at Jack.

"This thing is obviously wrong. Do we really need to put him through this?"

"We need to know."

"We already do know." Lucy replied her temper starting to rise. "Ianto hasn't killed anyone Jack!"

Jack looked away from her and back at Ianto who gave a small nod of his agreement.

"The second girl Ianto" he prompted the Welshman.

"She tried to get away but I was too quick. Pleading." Lucy couldn't even look at the machine. Her eyes were fixed on Ianto's face and the unearthly green light that lit it. She knew what the machine was going to tell her anyway, simply by looking at Ianto. He believed this to be the truth, completely and 100%. As far as he was concerned he thought he had killed those women and as the machine read Ianto's reactions to things, it was going to read as truth.

"And I..." Ianto continued and started to cry, "I... didn't care. Something in me wants to kill."

"No" Jack said quietly before repeating it louder. "No. This is not you. Something's changed you." He turned the machine off before getting up off his seat and leaving the room. "You're not a murderer. I'm certain of it."

Lucy gently let her boyfriend out of the wires.

"Do you trust me?" She asked seriously before giving him a small smile, "in matters apart from my own health, I mean. Do you trust me?"

Ianto nodded and roughly pulled down his sleeves.

"I love you and that's why you need to go. To run. I could kill you and I would enjoy it."

"This is where I need you to trust me." Lucy said still trying to be as calm as possible. "I need you to trust that I'm right. Do you remember the first time you saw me have a nightmare?" Ianto nodded and Lucy continued. "You were so scared for me and you told me that you would camp outside my room all night if needed but you just wanted to make sure that I was ok. You slept on the floor of my room on the sofa cushions when your bed was only just down the corridor. But you didn't care because you wanted to support me in the only way I would let you at the time. Let me support you now. Ok? Because any man who is willing to do that for someone he's not even properly started going out with is a _good_ man."

Ianto gave a small nod before whispering.

"I love you Lucy, I don't want to hurt you."

"I know you don't Yan." She replied wiping a tear from his face and brushing them away from her own eyes as well. "I love you to. It's going to be ok. You're just remembering wrong that's all." She stood up and offered her hand to him which he grabbed and after a couple of seconds they joined Jack who was pacing around the main work stations in the hub trying to work out what was wrong.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Jack span round and looked at Lucy.

"I'm loathe to ask this Lucy and I know you shouldn't tell me. But I need to ask, do you have any idea what is going on?"

"I know he's not a murderer," Lucy said with a shrug "the only possible reason for the machine lying is because he thinks he is. But why would I know anything Jack?"

It was now Jack and Ianto's turn to look at each other with worry and confusion written all over their faces, something Lucy didn't miss.

"What am I missing, what don't I know that I should do?"

"There's nothing in your safe?" Jack asked, trying to word the question in a different way on the off chance Lucy was too distracted to realise what he was asking her. Although he knew that wasn't true; Lucy forgetting where she was from, along with Gwen forgetting Rhys and Ianto remembering something that wasn't true added up to a picture he wasn't happy with. He was going to get to the bottom of this, he wanted his team back.

"What safe?" Lucy asked confused, before also connecting the dots, she was worried and it came across in her voice. "Jack, what am I not remembering?"

Ianto spoke quietly, his voice broken but still determined.

"Jack, Lucy said I was just remembering wrong and now she's forgetting stuff as well."

"Yeah," Jack replied as he turned on Lucy's work station, "I've just thought of that too. Take her to the archives. Get her to open the safe. I'm going to look at the CCTV, something is badly wrong. I don't like anyone messing with **_my_** team."

Lucy and Ianto walked down to the archive in silence, hands clenched tightly. Ianto was worried about Lucy and her missing memories and Lucy worried about her missing memories on top of Ianto's fake ones. As they reached room in the archives where Lucy's safe was stored Jack spoke through their comms.

"I've found something on the CCTV, proof that you didn't kill those girls Ianto. I should have known something was up when Gwen forgot Rhys. Lucy have you opened your safe yet?"

"Not yet." She replied gingerly as she placed her hand against the scanner and the light turned green. "Well the good news is you weren't wrong, it opens for me." She gave a nervous laugh and stared at the handle before looking at Ianto. He understood what she was silently asking him and deftly pulled the safe door open.

Lucy couldn't take her eyes off the DVDs as a sudden migraine appeared and with it things that could only be memories but they didn't quite fit. She forced herself to sit down and shut her eyes so she could try and make sense of it all.

"Lucy?" Ianto asked concern etched into his voice.

"It's like..." She tried to find the words to explain, "It's like a story and part of me know that it's real. Like I hadn't forgotten Becky, but I'd distanced myself from her and the memories and the stories of the Doctor. Everything is there in the back of my mind begging to be let out. But it hurts, my mind is arguing with itself about what's real and what's not. And it really hurts."

She opened her eyes to see Ianto knelt down next to her holding a bottle of water and some tablets, and she gratefully took them.

"I always keep pain killers and water down here." He explained "the further back you go the more of a headache it is."

"Thanks" Lucy replied as Jack joined them.

"Anything in there about Adam?"

Lucy stood up and pulled out the two DVDs for Torchwood series 1 and 2.

"No sign of him on the front cover. Of course I'm not there either so that doesn't mean anything..." As she spoke she began looking at the episode titles. "Series 2 episode 5 – Adam. That's the only mention of him anywhere. What does that mean?"

"That he's not Torchwood" Jack said grimly, and with that he walked out of the archives. Ianto waited for Lucy to put the DVDs away before they followed him, both angry that someone had played with their memories.

"I've got something to show you on the CCTV" Jack said when they joined him. They watched as Adam forced the memories into Ianto.

Lucy winced and automatically covered her ears at the sound of Ianto screaming in pain. Ianto just held her tightly and took a few deep breaths as he was shown proof that his mind had been played with. It was like Lucy had described, a minor battle going on in his head as the fake memories warred to try and stay. But the headache that appeared was nowhere near as bad as Lucy's had been, although Ianto believed that was to be expected. Lucy had had almost everything she knew pushed out of her mind to make room for what Adam had put in.

Once the CCTV showed Adam had left Jack turned it off.

"I've got videos of him telling all of us to 'remember' going back to yesterday morning before that he's not there. I've got a couple more things to check but he's not one of us."

He ran over to the medbay to check the blood samples and Lucy and Ianto followed. While Ianto helped Jack, Lucy sat down on the stairs. Now she had stopped worrying about Ianto and the painkillers were working on her headache her leg decided to start throbbing badly again. She leant against the wall, needing the support and the coolness it offered her as she tried to take her mind off it. There was more important things to be thinking about like the fact that someone had played with their mind and memories but it was no use. Her leg needed her attention, she vaguely heard Ianto typing away at her computer.

"Everything's in order here."

"When was it last updated?" Jack asked and Lucy forced herself to focus on their voices and not the pain. That and her anger at Owen and Ianto being right; she really wasn't ready to be back in the field yet.

"24 hours ago." Ianto said and the lights turned on as someone else walked into the hub, Lucy tried to pull herself up but winced in pain as she did so.

Ianto stopped looking at Owen who was carrying some flowers and looked at his girlfriend instead. "Lu!" He said sharply as he dashed over to help her up. "Are you ok?"

Lucy gave him a look and he knew it was a stupid question but before he could say anything she spoke.

"I hate to say this, but I think you and Owen may have had a point. I could really do with some pain relief."

Owen ran over to her as well, after putting the flowers on Tosh's desk.

"Most of the stuff I've got is going to make you sleepy."

Lucy shook her head, as she put an arm round Owen and Ianto and they helped her down the stairs to sit on the bed in the medbay.

"Can't have that." She said wincing from being jostled around "Right now I need to be awake and running on all cylinders. Give me the strongest stuff you've got."  
Owen looked up at Jack who was standing in the main area looking down at them. Jack gave a small nod.

"Ok" He shrugged "I've got stuff that will last for a couple of hours but it's only going to stop you feeling it. I don't like using it... I mean... well... if you can't feel it you don't know when you're pushing it too hard. I'll need to give you another proper check up later but I expect you'll be off work for a week or so and off the field for possibly even another month."

Lucy just nodded.

"I don't care. Just stop the pain." She hissed.

Owen quickly sorted out a concoction and injected it into Lucy's leg.

"What were you doing to make it this bad anyway..." he suddenly blushed, "I mean... well..."

Lucy sighed as the pain killers did their job pretty quickly and Ianto smirked as he realised what Owen thought they had been doing to cause Lucy to be in such pain and once he caught his girlfriend's eye he started laughing. After everything that had happened that previous night he needed something to make him smile, Lucy giggled as well.

"It wasn't that Owen, don't worry." She said between laughs while hitting Ianto trying to make him stop as his laugh was infectious. "Let's just say work was a bit busy last night and we had other priorities." She stood up and Owen passed her a crutch.

"Yes well... you'll need to use this. Because even if you can't feel it you still need to look after yourself."

Lucy sighed but grabbed the crutch and started up the stairs, Ianto standing just behind her in case she fell.

"Stop laughing," She hissed at Ianto once she'd got to the top, "You'll set me off again."

"He thought..." Ianto said with a grin as he tried to get himself under control,

"Yes I know what he thought." She replied, "And as much as I enjoy teasing Owen. Maybe now's not the time to do it."

Their good mood was immediately destroyed when Tosh and Adam walked in, Ianto gave her a quick kiss then moved went up the stairs to one of the higher levels of the hub, wanting to stay out of Adam's way as much as possible. Lucy sighed and sat in her chair.

"Aww!" Tosh said spotting the flowers, Adam just shrugged and went to sit down at his station. He raised his eyebrows at the crutch next to Lucy.  
"Don't ask." She replied, "Just... don't ask."

She turned her attention back to Owen and Tosh who were talking quietly.

"The most important thing is that you're happy." Owen was saying

"Thank you." Tosh turned to get on with her work for the day but Owen spoke again.

"Tosh? You _are_ happy with Adam aren't you?" he asked

"Completely." Tosh replied with a small smile

"Okay." Owen said walking away. Lucy forced herself not to frown and to concentrate on the screens in front of her.

Gwen walked into the hub, "Hey." She said slightly awkwardly.

"Hey." Tosh said, Lucy looked up and grinned.

"Hiya." She stood up and using the crutch walked over to her best friend to give her a hug, part of her mind was shouting at her that she didn't get along with the Welshwoman but the other part of her mind pointed out that she had fake memories of being best friends and that she couldn't let anyone know that something was wrong. Plus she wasn't completely sure which part was right, it was possible that she was friends with Gwen before Adam.

"How are you?" She asked

"I'm alright." Gwen replied, "Things are coming back slowly. Rhys thought I shouldn't come into work today but I wanted things to be as normal as possible. Anyway," she gestured to the crutch that Lucy was leaning on. "I seem to be doing better than you. What's happened now?" Lucy shrugged.

"Turns out Owen and Ianto might have had a point, I really shouldn't have been in the field last night or driving. Once the adrenaline wore down the pain kicked in."

"Oh you are stupid." Gwen said with a laugh, "I knew I shouldn't have let you drive me home yesterday."

"My choice, my stupidity." Lucy said with a smile.

"It's ok." Adam said standing up from his chair, "We'll look after you both. You just have to give it time. Come on group hug."

Owen joined them for a hug but Lucy pulled back, the others gave her an odd look so she shrugged, "I don't want to do anything to make this worse. And it's a bit difficult to be in a proper group hug with a crutch."

Ianto walked down the stairs and gave caught Lucy's eye trying to silently give her support, Lucy nodded and smiled back grateful for his help.

"Hey Ianto." Adam said as he pulled out of the hug, "Come here." Ianto stopped and Lucy moved to stand next to him as quickly as she could. "You alright mate?" Adam pulled his jacket off and Lucy grabbed Ianto's hand to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Anyway listen I could _murder_ a coffee." Adam continued and now it was Ianto's turn to hold Lucy back and stop her killing Adam.

"He's more than just the coffee boy." Lucy growled

"I know," Adam said raising his arms in mock surrender before sitting down muttering to himself, "honestly I make one innocent comment and she jumps down my throat."

Jack walked out of his voice having seen the by-play and took the safety off his gun, pointing it at Adam's head. Lucy and Ianto quickly stood between Adam and the rest of the team but out of touching distance.

"Talk to me Adam." Jack said with none of the warmth that was normally in his voice when he spoke to any of the Torchwood Team, any of _his_ team. "If that's really your name."

"What?" Adam asked spinning round on the chair  
"What are you doing Jack?" Gwen asked confused

"He's been feeding himself into our memories by touch." Jack explained still not taking his eyes off Adam.

"Is this some sort of sick joke?" Tosh asked confused.

"He didn't exist until two days ago." Lucy said ignoring the crutch to rest both hands on the guns at her waist.

"We've known him for years." Owen said slowly trying. "he's part of the team."

"He just made you think that." Jack said.

"Come on Jack-" Adam said leaning forward with his hand out, Jack jump back and Lucy and Ianto both took a quick step out of reach as well

"Ah, you don't get to me like that." Jack interrupted.

"Jack you know me." Adam tried getting agitated now, "you recruited me three years ago. I was here before any of the others."

"All I know is that when I think of my team, I see you there. But I don't feel anything for you. No pride. No warmth. You who I can confide in. The one who can unbury the dead."

"Jack." Gwen said stepping forward trying to help. "Maybe you've just forgotten him, like I did with Rhys, yeah?"

"On the subject of forgetting people important to us. I remembered my sister was still alive last night, only that she was in a different universe. It's not like me to forget about Becky or about where I came from but it turns out I did. And the worst thing was I didn't even know I'd forgotten anything, but I forgot that I have a sister out there somewhere who is missing me." Lucy hissed

"Well maybe it's something in the air?" Gwen tried, "some form of alien gas causing us to forget things."

"No it's not that." Jack said, "I should have seen something was wrong when you forgot Rhys. It wasn't stress, it was him. By making us think we know him it disturbs our real memories."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Adam said with a small laugh although it didn't reach his eyes which looked worried.

Jack grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"I'm taking him to the vault"

"Jack this is ridiculous" Adam called

"MOVE!" Jack shouted and Adam did so, Lucy and Ianto looked at each other and sighed.

"NO!" Tosh shouted as she drew her own gun.

"Tosh that's not going to help" Owen said as Lucy dropped the crutch completely and moved to once more be standing between Tosh and Jack.

"Lucy!" Ianto said loudly trying to stop her.

Tosh pointed the gun at all of them but Lucy stood firm.

"I had to watch the CCTV of him forcing Ianto to believe things about himself. He was screaming in pain Tosh."

"It's not true." Tosh said panicking "Adam wouldn't."

"Toshiko." Jack said calmly, "I'm just going to lock him up."

"Let him go."

"I'm not going to harm him. Lucy stand down." Lucy didn't move

"Why should I believe you?"

"Tosh, Tosh we can talk about this." Owen tried

"Drop the gun Jack!" Tosh said firmly but before Jack could respond Ianto was behind her and pulling the gun out of the tech's hands.

"No one points a gun at my girlfriend." He harshly.

"Jack's pointing a gun at my boyfriend!" Tosh replied crying, "Get off me." She pushed Owen and Gwen away, "ADAM!"

"This is what you've done to us." Jack hissed at the alien who had been pretending to be part of their team. "Move"

Adam smirked but turned and walked down the stairs.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They sat in the conference room, Lucy leaning the crutch next to her and quickly scribbling a letter to Ianto for him to see when he woke up as well as a small note to herself as well.

"Adam's played with our memories, he's changed who we are. Now it's my job to change us back. Find a memory that defines you. Rediscover who you are." Jack looked at the screen and of the image of Adam pacing the cell, "If I'm wrong he'll still be here when we've done this."

"Let me take you back to before we all me. Tell me where you are." Jack said as he dimmed the lights and Lucy allowed herself to simply listen to listen to the music that was being played.

"I'm fifteen" Lucy said and Jack looked at her, "Dad's gone to the pub, Mum's in the front room just staring at the TV even though it's turned off. Becky lying on the sofa crying, I pick her up and she smiles at me."

Gwen spoke next "College canteen, Rhys is sitting opposite me telling stupid jokes – 'Where do you find a tortoise with no legs? Where you left it'" She laughed

"It's my birthday" Owen starts, "I'm ten. Mum spends the whole day screaming 'I love you because I you're my son, but it didn't mean I have to like you"

"Maths club, something so realisable about maths" Tosh murmured "always the right answer"

"Meeting Lisa, falling in love. Never felt so alive."

"I turned sixteen, she packs my bags. Nicest thing you've done for me in years, Mother."

"Kissing him in the supermarket. The look on his face."

"My first flat, don't have a flat warming, there's no one I want to invite"

"Losing Lisa, like the world had ended."

"That car hitting her, social taking her away, the emptiness"

"The way he looks at me sometimes. As if he's scared of what he feels for me. I love him." Gwen looked up at Jack who passed her a pill "But not the way I love you"

"Knowing there has to be more to life than this. Knowing I'm special. Waiting for someone to see it." Tosh said in tears.

"I saw it" Jack said calmly and handed her the dose of retcon

"You save one life, 100 lives, but it's never enough. Who will save me?" Owen muttered.

"I will"

"So angry, she had no right. You deserve the universe" Lucy looked up from the table at Jack, "he deserves you."

Jack shook his head and kissed her forehead, "He deserves _you_, he wants _you_."

"Coming here. It gave me meaning again. You" Ianto said turning to look at Lucy. He took the pill from Jack.

Jack stood at the head of the table. "You each have a short term amnesia pill, it'll make you forget Adam. We have to wipe out the last 48hours from our memories. Go back to who we were."

Lucy picked up the pill and looked at Jack, "what if..."

"It'll just be a story. He can't be a memory from a story, it's not strong enough."  
Lucy nodded and took the pill the others quickly following, she immediately felt drowsy and leant against Ianto. He automatically shifted so as to make her more comfortable as he fell asleep as well.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy's first thought when she woke up was that she was in pain, her second thought was confusion because she was in the conference room in the hub with the rest of the team apart from Jack.

She spotted a note in front of her written in her handwriting with her name on.

_'Lucy, we've just done episode 2.5. Hence sleeping in the hub. You're in pain because I went out into the field last night and drove the car to get to Ianto and Jack in the hub. Listen to Owen and Ianto. Ianto's lost everyone, and he almost lost us as well, take it carefully, use the crutch, and actually take the tablets. You know the ones that we were just pretending to take.'_

Owen was the next one to wake and Lucy stopped playing on her phone to smile at him.

"Urgh!" he groaned, "How much did I drink last night?"

"No idea," She replied "But as I'm currently in pain, could you possibly deal with it?"

"Are you actually asking for my help?" Owen mocked, "I must still be drunk."

Lucy just looked at him.

"Are you going to help or not?"

"Sure." Owen shrugged, "any idea why we were asleep in here?"

Lucy shook her head and quickly shoved the note in her pocket.

"Nope." She grabbed the crutch and kissed Ianto as she stood up.

Owen stared at her.

"You're actually serious about this aren't you?"

"It appears whatever we've done over the past two days I pushed myself to hard. So about this pain relief..."

"I'll need to do a full check up." Owen warned her before realising what she said "hang on two days?"

"Yup." Lucy nodded, "my phone says it's now Tuesday evening. Last I remember was coming into work Monday morning."

"Stop fucking around Lucy." Owen complained pulling his own phone out. "I may have had a lot to drink but not that much."

Lucy smirked as Owen's face fell when he saw the date and time on his phone backed up what Lucy was saying.

"But... I don't remember any of it."

"And neither do I." She replied as she hobbled over to the door waiting for him to join her, "But we do have this magic drug in our stores which takes away our memories. While you work out of it was alcohol or retcon can you please give me something for this pain!"

Owen nodded and the two made their way towards the medbay.

Ten minutes later Ianto joined them.

"What wrong?" He asked as Owen finally finished looking at the damage done to Lucy's leg.

"You mean apart from the fact we've forgotten two days?" Owen asked as he started to prepare some medicine for Lucy, "It appears our universe traveller here pushed herself too hard in the past 48 hours. Her stitches have started to open up, again, and the area is swollen."

"Lucy..." Ianto sighed and Lucy looked at him sheepishly

"If it helps I don't actually remember doing it."

"No but you left me a note. Something that I would see when I woke up. You went out into the field and drove my car because you thought Gwen was in danger and then back to the hub because you were worried about me."

"Oh." Lucy said, not sure what else to say.

Owen decided to leave them a couple of minutes alone before he came back to give Lucy the pain relief.

"I am sorry Ianto."  
"For what?" He asked as he sat next to her

"How I've been acting recently. I know I'm a bad patient and that I've been driving you up the wall. But I haven't been thinking about what the bullet could have done. How I could have died."

"I almost lost you." Ianto said quietly.

"I know" She replied and grabbed his hand, "and from now on that's what the scar is going to mean to me. It's going to remind me that I've got someone to take care of me, instead of me looking after them all the time. With Becky, I couldn't afford to be ill and my dad..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "well he didn't exactly like it."

"You don't need to tell me anything." Ianto said calmly

"No I need to." Lucy said opening her eyes again and pushing all thought of her father to the back of her mind. "I need to tell you about it Ianto. I _want_ to tell you about it, but it's hard. It's so ingrained in my brain to keep it all secret and to just keep going. And I know that he's not here and that I'm safe but still..." She shrugged and Ianto nodded in understanding.

"Our normal isn't normal so there is no point trying." He said with a smile, "I know our job is dangerous, I lost all my friends to this job and the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But seeing you like that, we'd only just got back together Lu. And you collapsed in my arms, Owen said that if he didn't have some of the tech he does you probably would have died. And then you were complaining all the time about not being on the job, whilst I was just thankful that you could complain."

"I'm going to work on it Ianto. For me and for you, I promise. Owen says I'm not allowed into the hub for at least a week so I'm going to get Jack to send some paperwork for me to do and I'm going to get a bunch of DVDs that I keep meaning to watch and spend time in front of the TV with some ice-cream."

"Sounds like a good plan." Ianto said "I'll make sure to join you, we miss a lot of TV with this job."

"Can you miss the bullet wound bit of the plan though?" and Ianto just smirked and kissed her.

"Just because I love you. Now listen to the grumpy doctor this time. Ok?"

Lucy laughed.

"Sure" she said before speaking louder, "You can come in again Owen. I want those drugs now!"

**A/N: So my team leader's visas expired and I've been merged into the bigger team which involved going with them on road trip this week. I honestly didn't think it would happen otherwise I would have warned you. On that note next time I go on Road Trip (cause if I stay with this job it will happen again) would you prefer a Wednesday morning (aussie time) update or a late Saturday/early Sunday update?**

**Anyway to the best of my knowledge there isn't a Road Trip next week and I can't go to the one the week after cause I'm working ComicCon. Which means that I almost certainly... probably...99/98% chance that I will be back on Friday like normal next week (and I know I said that last week)**

**Rea**

**P.S Interestingly my review/read count dropped when I stuck up the chapter a day late - do people just not read things on Saturdays? Or is it more that because I was late you couldn't be bothered to read? Or because it was Adam?**


	41. Chapter 41 - Reset, Part 1

Lucy sat watching Owen as he inspected the dead body.

"Have you got anything else to do?" He asked sarcastically.

"Nope" she replied popping the 'p', "finished most of my paperwork and I'm bored. No one else is doing anything that interesting and Jack's locked the shooting range, he's only just finished fixing something apparently. But honestly if he didn't want those targets to be destroyed he shouldn't have put them there and made them out of something that is so easily destroyable. I've only just been allowed to play in there again, you would have thought he could have done it up for me."

"Watching me do an autopsy is interesting?" Owen asked, deciding not to comment on the fact that within a week of being given the official all clear from her bullet wound and allowed to return to full duties she had destroyed the shooting range.

"More interesting than sitting in the tourist office yeah." She smiled innocently "You wouldn't kick me out would you?"

Before Owen could say anything, Tosh, Gwen and Jack joined them.

"She come to bug you as well?" Jack asked.

"You mean you've already shoved her away and I'm the last resort?" Owen looked at the rest of the team and then back at Lucy

"Yeah... sorry about that, apart from Gwen, if that makes you feel any better. It would be more fun if you let me do something."

"I'm not letting you near any sharp knives, you're bad enough with just Cecil and all the other stuff you've got locked away, hence Jack having to fix the range. If you want to watch you can stay there. Also no, it doesn't really help to know that you picked me over Gwen. No offence Gwen but you and Lucy don't exactly get along."

"Well we all know that." Gwen shrugged, over the three months where Jack had been gone they had come to an agreement. They respected each other for the work they did and trusted each other in the field, but that didn't mean they had to like each other. It had worked so far and the amount of arguments between them had decreased.

"Documents on the body are identify the victim as..." Jack checked the driving license. "Meredith Roberts."  
"No obvious signs of violence." Owen said deciding to follow Jack's example and return to work and the autopsy.

"Are you saying it wasn't the weevil?" Lucy asked.

"Give me a chance Miss Smith, I've only just started"

Before she could reply and let the doctor got on with his work, Ianto's voice came through the sound system.

"Jack. Your VIP visitor is here."

Lucy's head shot up.

"Nooooo, Jack. You didn't... I've not got my autograph book. Damn, I should have stayed in the tourist office. I knew this was important but I didn't know when you called her or when she would come. Bugger it all."

"I didn't even realise we were having a visitor" Gwen said as the rest of the team followed Lucy and Jack who had ran to the cog door.

Jack just laughed at her reaction, and the others stared. Everyone apart from Gwen was remembering how excitable she had been when she arrived and realised what was going on. As well as the pestering for autographs.

"Suddenly, in an underground mortuary on a wet night in Cardiff , I hear the song of a nightingale." The cog door opened and Martha Jones walked in. Lucy tried very hard not to go back into fan girl mode, it was something she hadn't done for some time. It was different when you worked with your heroes every day. They just became friends although she did have their autographs in her book, she still couldn't believe her luck when she thought about it lying awake at night. Especially not as she was lying in bed with her head on Ianto's chest and his arms around her, he had chosen _her_.

"Oh it's good to see you Jack." Martha grinned and hugged Jack tightly. Jack hugged her back then introduced her to the rest of the team.

"Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Lucy and Ianto."  
"Hi." Lucy waved. "It's good to actually meet you, unless you have already met me, in which case hi again." She ended slightly awkwardly and Martha smiled at her.

"No, you helped a lot and got me around the world and out of China just in time but we never actually met. Saw your face on a fair few wanted posters though, just below mine. You were undesirable number 2" Martha smiled at her and Lucy took it as a compliment "You ran the resistance with Gwen, it wasn't safe for either of you to talk directly too me, had to use intermediaries"

"Err who are you and what are you talking about?" Owen asked

"Martha Francine Jones" Lucy couldn't stop herself saying, "works at UNIT, started... three months ago unless I've got my dates wrong. Cousin worked at Torchwood 2, Adeola, she was the first to fall to the Cybermen. Martha Jones saved the planet and if it wasn't for her you'd be dead." She thought for a bit then added, "Still, probably. I can't imagine he let us live, he'd have had the Himalayas searched for you by... well, none of us would have survived for long anyway and I believe that answers your second question too."

Everyone was looking at her and she tried not to blush.

"Anything else I should know?" Owen teased her, deciding to ignore that last comment knowing that she was as good as Jack keeping secrets over things involving the Doctor.

"She's met Shakespeare." She said as a final throw away comment and by the look on Martha's face she understood the significance of that line and was thinking about the year that was never was. The look went away quickly and a smile took its place.

"Bloody Hell, Jack. I know you said that we were a TV program and she was obsessed with it but that's impressive. She could write my biography."

"Sorry" Lucy replied, "I'm not a stalker, I swear and I don't know _everything_ about you, just a lot, well most things that happened over those couple of days while you were travelling."

The dark skinned woman laughed.

"I know, and I'll give you my autograph later, I heard you mention it through the door. But first I've got your post-mortem to complete."

Owen did not look happy

"Dr. Jones is from UNIT" Jack explained as he led Martha to the medbay.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry. I get a bit confused." Gwen said as she followed. "Which one is UNIT?"  
"Seriously Gwen?" Lucy said scornfully. "How long have you been working for Torchwood? It's not like there are many other alien fighting teams in the UK. UNIT are the army ones, set up by one of my heroes, Brigadier Alliaster Gorden Lethbridge Stewart."  
"They're the ones in the red caps." Ianto said.

"The acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens." Jack added. "We're more adhoc, but better looking."

"The Doctor worked for UNIT back in the 70's... or maybe the 80s,he's still technically on the pay roll, I think." Lucy said with a shrug. "Anyway, the government pay UNIT so they need to follow their rules, we get paid by the Royal Family and are 'outside the government' so get to fudge a lot of those rules."

"I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths." Martha said as she pulled on her gloves. "Toxic shock, nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations, but there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales."

"Come on Martha." Jack crowed, "be honest. You just came all this way to see me."  
"Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?" Martha replied and Lucy smirked at her boss. It was moments like this that she had joined Torchwood. Saving the world, or at least Wales, and meeting aliens become routine, part of her normal average life. Not that her life could ever be called average. But meeting fictional characters, people she had aspired to be like... that was something else entirely.

"So, what about this pattern then, Dr Jones?" Owen asked, annoyed that his case had been taken off him.

"They were being written off as suicides or accidents." Martha said as she examined the body, obviously looking for something in particular, something which she found. "Look."

Owen looked over and Lucy leant over the hand rail to see if she could see what they were looking at.

She could see the image of Owen's body lying there instead of the one that he was inspecting, and suddenly went pale. Meeting Martha was amazing but that meant she knew what was going to happen, she knew that Owen, her friend, was going to die. And there was nothing she could do about it.

"Whoah." Ianto grabbed her as she lost her balance, the sudden realisation about what was going to happen hitting home. "Steady."  
"I'm fine Yan." She tried to shrug him off.

"You don't look it. Owen?" Owen looked up at her and left the body he was inspecting to go and join them.

"You're pale but..." He put the back of his hand to her forehead and she pushed it away. "No temperature and you seem to be acting like normal."  
"I'm FINE, I was just a bit light-headed for a while. What's up with the body?"  
"Maybe you should..."  
"You cleared me, I'm fine. So, what's up with the body?" She repeated harshly and all of the Torchwood team knew that there was no point trying to help Lucy more, she wasn't going to accept it.

"We can wait if you want." Martha offered "Till you're feeling a bit better" and Lucy wanted to snap at her, the rest of the team flinched ready for it but Lucy just clenched her fists and stood up straighter.

"I'm **fine.**"  
"Ok, well there's a puncture mark in the eye. Hypodermic needle. We'll find his bloodstream was pumped full of ammonium hydroxide"  
"Yeah bloodstream." Owen said awkwardly as he went back down the stairs to join Martha and the body. "That was the thing I was going to check next."

"Checked his medical records?" Martha asked

"Ahh, no just about to"

"Well let's give it a go. You never know, Owen you might learnt something."

Owen was obviously not impressed and Lucy couldn't help but smile, the whole might be going to hell in a hand basket but you could always rely on Owen to be grumpy and sarcastic.

Tosh, Owen, Martha and Jack went over to Tosh's workstation while Lucy, Gwen and Ianto split from the group and got back to their own work. Lucy decided to bury herself in paperwork so she didn't have to think about the future about what was going to happen and about what she couldn't stop. Reading files from Flat Holm about their patients and what they needed as well as reports from UNIT was just the thing for her to concentrate on. At some point she'd have to give a bunch of paperwork back to Jack, she still hadn't given him back what she had taken in the three months he was travelling, but right now the big pile gave her a focus. And she needed that focus.

"Lucy!" Jack called as he, Martha and Gwen walked into her office next to the broken down shooting range. She got up from her desk and the pile of papers on it, she always preferred writing things out by hand instead of storing it on the laptop and smiled at them as she met them at the door.

"What do you want? I'm finishing off the UNIT paperwork so we can actually legally have Martha for as long as we want and she feels is necessary."  
"Useful." Martha said with a nod as she looked round

"I thought so, you can go back to UNIT whenever you see fit but they can't pull you back on a whim. Once Jack signs the paperwork you'll officially be on secondment to Torchwood. Which means you can do things our way and break the rules without getting into trouble"  
"Lucy is the one who actually talks to UNIT for us as well as being in charge of our weapons and making sure the rest of the team train." Jack explained. "She does lots of other useful things too which we discovered when she wasn't here."  
"Be fair Jack I was shot and nearly died."

"Still didn't stop you wanting to come into work though." Gwen pointed out and Lucy shrugged.

"I'm stubborn?

"Something that no one could ever doubt." Jack laughed "Fancy joining us on the tour?"  
"Sure. Has she met Myfwany yet?"

"Whose Myfwany?" Martha asked.  
"Obviously not. I'll go grab some meat then so we can feed her too."

"See you in the hothouse then." Jack grinned

Lucy meet up with them again five minutes later roughly wiping her now bloody hands on her jeans. Martha raised an eyebrow but she just shrugged, with the amount of blood, goo, guts and generally 'icky' stuff that they saw on the job she had stopped being worried by them. It would wash out, mostly.

"Right. Now you've seen the dull stuff fancy meeting our pet?"  
"You've got a pet?"  
"Yup Myfwany. She needs feeding although we let her hunt on her own mostly."  
"I dread to ask but what kind of pet is Myfwany?" Martha looked at Gwen, Lucy and Jack, none of them giving anything away.

"Come and see." Jack said and Martha shrugged.

"Lead the way."

"Have you known Jack long?" Gwen asked as Jack led the way through the hot house and to the bottom of the steps up the tower, picking up the bag of meat. Martha's eye's widened at the bag and Lucy grabbing some chocolate as well, her imagination working overtime at what kind of creature would eat that combination of food.

"No, we were only together a few days really." She said in reply to Gwen's question. "But it was rather intense."  
"Oh so you two..." Gwen trailed off and Lucy stifled a laugh at the idea of Gwen and Jack. Jack may flirt with anything and Gwen was definitely attracted to him, but there were a few lines that Jack didn't cross and sleeping with someone in an exclusive relationship was one of them, no matter how much he joked.

"Oh God no!" Martha said quickly. "Not that sort of intense. Why are you?"  
"No, no. And Lucy's with Ianto." Gwen said.

"We must be the only three woman who haven't..."

"Shows we've got taste then." Lucy grinned.

"Or we're doing something wrong." Gwen added  
"You three talking about me?" Jack said stopping to let them catch up, their gossiping had caused them to dawdle.  
"We were talking about we seem to be the only people on the planet with taste." Lucy called up.

"You're so dull."

Lucy quickly caught up and opened the led that led to the narrow railed path that jutted out from the wall that led them into Myfwany's area but meant that the dinosaur could leave and have access to the outside world whenever she wanted.

"Hello girl." Lucy said as she threw the chocolate in, Myfwany jumping into the air towards her to catch it. "Did you miss me? We've brought a friend to see you."  
Martha stood and leant against the wall in surprise, whatever she was expecting to see a fully grown pterodactyl was not it. She also didn't expect to see Lucy causally petting it behind the wing and the dinosaur reacting like a cat or a dog would.

"You have a dinosaur."

"Yup." Jack laughed. "Ianto's first mission was helping to bring her in. One hell of a date."

"An actual breathing dinosaur."

"Yeah." Gwen agreed, "When I first came here she dived at me."  
"She's a good guard dog." Lucy said while continuing to stroke her. "You are aren't you lovely, very good at keeping all the nasty people away. You beautiful girl..."  
"You and Ianto spoil her." Jack laughed.

"She's a dinosaur." Lucy said with a small pout. "And alive in the 21st century, why wouldn't we spoil her, she's gorgeous. Yes... you are... and you know it don't you 'fwany... you know how much we love you."

Martha allowed herself to take a few seconds to accept what she was seeing, a woman that the Doctor respected and that she herself knew great things about from the Year-That-Never-Was was stroking and treating a pterodactyl like one would the family pet. She couldn't help thinking that if the Doctor was there he would be doing exactly the same thing, he was a grown up child.

"If the guys at UNIT knew about this..."  
"They don't need to know." Jack said firmly. "I know you've got to write reports Martha but..."  
"No, no that's not what I meant. Just, they tell enough stories about you lot anyway, and they don't seem to know half of it. I mean you have a dinosaur as a guard dog."

Lucy finished giving Myfwany strips of meat and left the carcass there for the Pterodactyl to eat herself.

"Well I'm finished up here for now, I'll come see you again later girl..."

"You've got some well weird kit." Martha said as they returned to the central hub area and picked up what they had called the 'singularity scalpel'.

"Careful with that." Jack warned as Martha looked at it, "It's an alien artefact."

"Yeah, there's a lot of argument about this, but for my money," Owen said as he came up from the medbay to join them, taking the scalpel off Martha. "it's got to be a surgical instrument."  
"Or it could be a weapon." Lucy pointed out, as she sat down on the sofa and pulled her laptop out. "Or a surgical instrument that could be used as a weapon."  
"You think everything is a weapon." Owen replied.  
"I think everything could kill someone if used correctly, or incorrectly."  
"And the Doctor is your hero yeah?" Martha said surprised. "Even with his whole, no guns thing."

"Even with the no guns thing." Lucy nodded. "It's just easier to use them sometimes, and in a job like this the easiest method is often the best. We're all for Occam's Razor."

"Anyway, I called it the singularity scalpel and they all agreed. See what it does is it concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point, without damaging anything on the way. It's brilliant." He turned the knobs on the side to show how it worked and shoved a scrumpled up piece of paper into a paper cup.

"It's amazing." Martha agreed.

"Yeah, do you remember the last time you did that, Owen, and..." Gwen said reminding them of when Owen had tried and managed to blow up Lucy's laptop.

"Yes, yes..." He shrugged off Gwen's comment and Lucy shut and hide her laptop, although if it was going to hit the laptop the cushion in front of it wouldn't make any difference. "Right, now, all we're going to do is we're going to vaporise the paper without even scorching the cup."  
"This is going to end in tears." Jack warned Martha and pulled her back so she was standing slightly behind Owen.

"If you break my laptop again Owen I will break you." Lucy warned but still watched with interest, after all there was always the chance that Owen had actually got it properly sorted and it would work.

"Ok..." Owen fiddled some more and something exploded to the left of Lucy, Ianto screamed and used the tray he had been carrying as a shield, unfortunately throwing the mugs of coffee to the floor causing them to smash and only add to the cacophony.

"Haven't quite got the calibration right." Owen said sheepishly as Ianto glared at him. Lucy got up and put her hand out to take the scalpal from Owen like one would take a toy fromt a naughty child.

"You lost me Ianto's coffee and broke my favourite mug." She scowled at him and Owen handed it over.

"You making coffee tea-boy?" The medic asked.  
"I had." Ianto said calmly, "Jack, there's been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic, only this time the victim survived. Woman, aged 27, she's in the hospital. Oh I'll need you to clear some new mugs in the budget... seems our normal ones have been destroyed."

Ianto walked away picking up a broom from behind the sofa and started to tidy up the mess made from the broken mugs. While the rest of them grabbed their jackets and started for the door, Lucy kissing Ianto on the check as she passed him.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"But the doctors said they'd finished with me." Marie said as Martha took some blood.

"We're a bit different from them." Martha said kindly, focussing on the job in hand.  
"We know this is tough on you, Marie." Gwen smiled at the woman "But did you recognise the man who attacked you?"  
"I already told the police."  
"We're different from them too." Lucy interrupted. "Still official just used to looking at things more sideways than the rest."  
"No, I've never seen him before?"  
"Did he say anything in the course of the attack?" Gwen asked and Marie shook her head.

"No."  
"Open wide." Martha said and started to swab the inside of Marie's mouth.

"Look he just..." Marie spoke around the swab. "Look he just came towards me with a great big bloody needle didn't he. You know, my dog bit him and then I kicked him in the nuts."  
"Good for you." Lucy said with a grin, smirking at Jack who grinned back. Considering what had happened to her he had taken a step back and allowed the woman to take the lead. "Just one last question and then we'll be out of your hair." She said seriously before amending her statement. "Probably. Hopefully. Anyway, what I need to know is if there is anything else you haven't mentioned that we might possibly need to know. Nothing that we're going to find out from someone else about why someone would do this to you?"

Marie thought about it for a bit but shook her head.

"No, I've told you everything. The police asked if I could pick him out in a line-up, and I said yes. But I don't know, I just ran."  
"Ok. Well if Martha has everything we need and it's ok with the boss?" She looked at Jack and Martha who both nodded. "I think we'll be going, thanks for talking to us."  
"Look after yourself." Gwen said kindly before scribbling down her phone number. "If you think of anything else or if it happens again, call me."  
"Ok." Marie looked worried at the idea that it might happen again but didn't say anything else. Martha packed up her kit and the team left.

When they got back to the hub, Ianto was waiting for them with takeaway Costa cups full of coffee, his face told them all about how annoyed he was with the circumstances and that that they would be wise to not bring it up. Lucy took hers and went to join Tosh and Jack while Gwen went to her desk and Martha went straight to the medbay where Owen was waiting for her. The two doctors quickly got to work looking through the samples that Martha had taken and trying to find out what had happened, they were acting as though they'd been working together for years; both completely comfortable with where the other was and what they were doing.

"Any luck finding anything?" Lucy asked Tosh who shook her head.

"I'm definitely closer, got a few fragments but nothing useful."

"Stupid question." Lucy said, she'd been thinking about this in the SUV on the way back. Jack nodded at her but also gave her a look that implied quite a few of her questions her stupid and she didn't need to warn them."We don't know where or when this guy is going to strike but we know that the victim will have had their data wiped. So can't we use that?"  
Ianto, Tosh and Jack all looked at each other, not quite sure what she was asking.

"How?"  
"Well they'll have wiped a metric shit ton of extra files, to hide the ones they needed. But surely we could print a list of whose missing within 10 miles of Cardiff. That's still going to be huge but surely once we place them on a map with the known victims from Martha they'll be some help. Plus once we know what's linking them we can cut it down even more. I mean it's probably just loads of extra work and not useful but we might end up with a potential victim list of only a couple of hundred. We could cold call, I could cold call, say we're from the NHS and just want to check a few things because of the lost data. That way we might be able to find something."  
"You're going to cold call people?" Ianto said surprised.

"If we get it down to less than 200 then maybe. If we don't know the link by then." She shrugged. "Like I said it was a stupid idea, just figured we might be able to get a better idea of what's happening if we know all the potential victims. Because whatever this is it's not random, the way of killing is too precise, and UNIT know it too..." She pointed at Martha. "Otherwise why would she be here?"  
Lucy had decided to not tell the others that she knew what was going on, not this time. She couldn't admit that she knew this would end in the death of one of her friends, not yet – they'd work it out later but by then there was nothing they could do.

"It's a good idea and we'll use it as a back up one." Jack said. "Probably a bit too much work but we can definitely plug in the data. Lucy, you call the Department of Health and get them to send over a list of all the names that they lost files in South Wales. We can at least plug them into the computer. Ianto, for now can you just continue with your normal work. We've got a visitor after all..." Ianto nodded and left them, while Tosh returned to her work trying to find the lost files.

"Ok," Lucy turned to walk away before remembering something "Um... did anyone go speak to the family of the dead guy we had in here earlier? They might be able to tell us something."

Jack sighed as he realised that Lucy was right, they had never actually gone to tell Meredith's family or friends what had happened to him, they were probably worried.

"GWEN!"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Locally we've got a murder victim and a survivor" Jack said, they were all in his office as he briefed them on what they had gathered the day before, not that many of them had forgotten or got much sleep. "Both attacked with hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped."  
"And more cases across the UK." Martha added. "We think the point of the attacks is to destroy evidence of their medical condition."

"Gwen, Ianto, pursue the criminal investigation." Jack ordered. "Lucy, you help them if you can but I want you working on that list of potential victims you were talking about yesterday."  
"NHS lost 357 files in Cardiff, nothing to link them but of course it doesn't help when there is nothing to see. Quite a few of them seem to be from the poorer areas though, like Splott – Ianto don't you dare." She could see that Ianto was itching to correct her pronunciation. "The council estates too, figure I'll start with phone calls to them."  
"Good idea. Once we know more about these people we can work out why they were being attacked and what's going on."

"Martha, Owen, you continue following up on the medical side. Tosh, any luck in retrieving those medical records?"  
"Not yet. I'm going to have to dig down into the system memories, see if I can find any remnants of deleted or temporary files. Completely illegally of course."

"Do what you have to do, work together with Lucy. She might find something to help you and you might find something to help her questions. We're not dealing with a freak with some needle fetish, this is a conspiracy." Jack looked at them all to try and impart the seriousness of it, they all looked straight back at him. Fully aware of what they were doing, Lucy decided to break the tension.

"Martha?"  
"Hmm?"  
"When this is done can I get your autograph for my collection? I've already got this lot." Which was true, she had got Torchwood's when she had first arrived – including Suzie's – and Gwen had added hers to the others during the time that Jack had been missing and they had called a truce.

Martha laughed and Lucy knew that her question had worked.

"When this is over. You and I can have a proper conversation then too."  
"I look forward to it a lot more than the 357 phone calls I have to make. Can you tell me about the stuff I don't know, like the TARDIS rooms, does he have a garden in there? Or about any adventures that I don't know..."

"Get on with it." Jack ordered but he had a smile on his face too. Lucy had come out of her shell since joining Torchwood but he was glad to see her still act like the fan girl he had first met.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy put the phone down and crossed another name off her list, she had cut it down to 300 and decided to reward herself with a slight break. Nothing of interest so far although she had one more person to add to the list of the dead. Most people she had spoken to were annoyed to find out that their files had been among those that were wiped but had nothing useful to tell her, they were all fine and had had no serious problems or reasons to visit their doctor within the last 6 months.

She stretched and walked over to Tosh with the list.

"These 50 weren't part of it, found anything?"  
"There are fragments here but I haven't got a hold of them yet. It's the staying out of sight bit that's difficult."

Lucy rolled her shoulders to get the kinks out and went back to her desk, deciding to play a game of solitaire or minesweeper before she started on the next 50 phone calls. It was as she was close to completing the game of solitaire that her phone went off, there was a text from one of her few friends outside of Torchwood, Katrina Johnson, the Cardiff Superintendent. It was one of the thing that Lucy had started doing while Jack was missing, Gwen seemed to forget how useful some of her old connections (apart from Andy) could be and Lucy was constantly getting annoyed about how they interacted with the police and other services. What had started out a working relationship between the two woman had grown to friendship, even though Katrina was nearly twice Lucy's age she wasn't treated like a child and instead as an equal. Although they both made references that the other didn't understand a lot of the time and Lucy was grateful that Katrina just ignored it as some 'youth' thing that she didn't know. It was also Katrina that Lucy had gone to when she had broken up with Ianto and felt that she was getting under Tosh's feet, the older woman took her into her home for tea and often dinner without any question and Lucy had got along well with her husband as well. What this meant was that Lucy was often in the loop before it came through on the official system.

_'Another body in Heath Park, looks like it's one of the ones you're interested in. Come round for dinner when this is over and tell me what you can'_

"There's another attack in Heath Park." Lucy said as soon as she'd finished reading the text, speaking into the microphone on her desk. "Ianto do you and Gwen want to..."

"We're on it." Ianto replied and Tosh looked over at Lucy, who was now bringing up the file.

"How did you know about that, it's not even on my system yet?"  
"I have my sources." Lucy said waving her phone slightly and Tosh rolled her eyes, they all had ways of gathering knowledge – she used computers and Lucy used people. But the Japanese woman often wished that Lucy used computers as well, they were much easier to understand it meant she would know where the information was coming from. Sure enough though once she ran a check on the Police System she found proof to back up Lucy's claim. A body had been found in Heath Park with no obvious cause of death.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto and Gwen had gone to go speak to Barry Leonard's best mate, the student had simply been out for a morning run before he had been attacked whilst Owen and Martha has gone to the hospital. Their only living victim had had a seizure of some kind and Owen had finally found something in her blood that was a potential cause for alarm. Both teams came back saying the impossible, they had been cured of an incurable disease and 'reset' back to the human body's factory settings. An hour after they returned they were all sitting in the conference room explaining what they had found now they new what to look for.

"This folks is a molecular model of the drug that we found in Marie's blood." Owen explained, him and Martha stood at the top of the table.

"She called it Reset." Martha added.

"So what does it do?" Ianto asked.

"Probably what it says on the tin." Lucy shrugged.

"Exactly." Owen agreed. "Like when you run a virus scan through the computer the software works its way through the files and when it finds a Trojan or a virus or whatever, identifies it and then deletes it. That's what this stuff does to the human body. Resets it back to its factory settings."  
"Useful. Is that flesh wounds too? Scars and such like?" The weapons specialist asked, thinking of the small scars that covered her body as well as the big ones on her neck and at the base of her back and the bullet wound on her thigh. She had got used to them and seeing the one on her neck in the mirror had taken some time to get used to, but she had done so after a few months of hating it.  
"I don't think so," Owen replied, thinking the same thing as her. "It's more internal things, diabetes, AIDS and such like. But it's not just viruses though, harmful bacteria and toxins even mutant cells you name it."  
"It's the ultimate magic bullet. Supersedes anything and everything in the pharmacological armoury." Martha said in slight awe.

"But that would be the greatest medical discovery in history." Gwen said

"Exactly. Except it comes bundled with a lethal alien parasite." The image on the screen changed to an alien that had a similar shape to a mayfly.  
"Suddenly I can understand why they haven't told anyone. And I'm no longer too keen on finding out what it does to physical wounds." Lucy breathed  
"The parasite needs a healthy body until it's incubated. So the parasite egg incorporates this magic bullet, which puts everything in the system back to its factory settings."

"Reset. Neat-o" Jack said sarcastically. "So, who runs the Pharm?"

"Well the public image is innocent enough." Ianto answered looking at the file he had gathered. "Private-public partnership between the government and a consortium of pharmaceutical companies. Researching and developing cutting edge biotechnology."  
"Their IT systems are way more cutting edge than they need to be." Tosh took over the explanation. "Plus they've got seemingly unrestricted security clearance."  
"What's the betting they've found blackmail on someone higher up then?" Lucy asked rolling her eyes. "That always seems to appear with the word unrestricted."  
"Maybe." Martha shrugged. "But what it does mean is they have the capability to erase medical records if they wanted to."  
"Exactly." Tosh agreed.

"Of my 357 lost records in Cardiff I've got another 116 left to go." Lucy said, now adding her information to the narative. "Of the people I've spoken too so far, we have 13 already dead, most people annoyed but 21 who almost seemed greatful and had hinted towards something significant having changed anyway. I'm going to call those 21 again after this and press them for more information, see if they know anything about the Pharm. Pint out that any confidenitality agreement they may have signed means nothing if they are in need of medical attention and the doctors don't have the right information."  
"Good idea." Jack agreed. "If they don't tell you anything try their family, see if they've noticed them no longer taking their medication or something like that. Who runs this outfit?"  
"The Institute Director is Dr Aaron Copley." Gwen said, now looking at her file while Ianto changed the picture on the screen again.  
"Yeah." Owen said. "I know his work. He's one of the most respected research scientists in his field."  
"Harvard Graduate, did research at Cambridge." Ianto added. "Last job, Harvard Professor of Molecular Pharmacology. Came to the UK to set up the Pharm."

"Kinda handsome too." Jack smirked. "Do you think he'll like visitors?" They rolled their eyes and he started issuing orders. "Owen, you're coming with me, Lucy I want you to finish calling those potential victims and then call back the suspicious ones. Tosh try getting into their system. Martha, can you keep looking into Reset for us, see what you can find out about this 'alien mayfly'. Ianto I'd like a mug of liquid gold before we leave."

**A/N: Look things are back to normal I'm here on a Friday. Welcome to the beginning of the end (actually that's a lie we're only about half way through the whole story but it is the beginning of the end of the series)**

**Anyway, I hope you all have a good week.  
See you all next week (Which will be on Friday again even though there is a Road Trip at work because I've booked the day off for COMICCON!)  
I love all of my readers to pieces but the ones who review I love to pieces with hot chocolate**

**Rea**


	42. Chapter 42 - Reset, Part 2

"I can't hack in there Jack." Tosh said, as though it was an offence to her personally that the Pharm's system was unhackable. "And if I keep on trying with a brute-force approach they'll know they're under attack."

"An alien life form is prying on the human bloodstream." Jack replied also annoyed although he was annoyed at the situation and not Tosh's failure "I need a way in there."

"Tosh!" Ianto called. "I've got the results of the research you wanted." He pressed a button so Tosh's screen was showing the same thing as his. "On screen now."

The screen showed a page on the Pharm website where they were advertising for volunteers to try their products.

"Ianto that's brilliant." Tosh said as she looked under the Cardiff section, whilst Lucy made a small note that they were also looking for volunteers in Manchester, she would follow that up later and make sure there was no walking alien bombs up there. "They're in the market for volunteers." Tosh explained while the rest of the team came over to have a look.

"That's understandable given their wastage rate." Jack quipped

"Then I go in undercover." Lucy offered, they all knew that undercover was the obvious way in, but Jack and Owen both shook their heads.  
"No. We don't know enough about the workings of that place. Too many things could go wrong." Jack said.  
"Besides, any medical professional worth their salt would know that something was different to you, and we have no clue how your body would react to Reset. I only cleared you last week and, no offence, but I really don't want to have you as a patient again so soon." Owen added.

"What's different?" Martha asked interested, she knew Lucy's backstory but had never really thought about what that would mean for her friend.

"Her DNA. It seems like the parallel universe is similar in evolution apart from the obvious differences in fiction and non-fiction. But the universes themselves are different which means that although evolutions happened the same way DNA is not identical. We share 96% of our DNA with every other living creature on the Earth, except Lucy." Owen explained, going to the closest computer and within less than a minute bringing up Lucy's DNA as well has his own, Martha walked over interested. Her sharp eyes noticing the differences.

"Ahh, I see. That's fascinating."  
"It makes one hell of a study." Owen agreed.

"Just for the record Martha that's classified and one of the things not to go on your report." Jack said, his voice had a jokey tone to it but they all knew he wasn't lying.

"And I'd also prefer it if you didn't look at my DNA like I was a rat under a microscope." Lucy said slightly uncomfortably, "I know I'm..." She was going to say 'a freak' but saw Ianto's sharp look and decided against it. "... different. But it's not the sort of thing one brings up in polite conversation."

"Anyway it's proven my point," Owen smirked. "Lucy you can't go in because the second they start analysing your blood they'll lock you up with the aliens to try and use you in the same way."

"What about a medical professional?" Martha asked looking up from the screen. "Someone who knows what to look for?"  
"Yeah, but he's already seen my face."  
"Believe it or not Owen, I wasn't talking about you." Martha looked at Jack.

"No way"

"Come on Jack I've been in worse places and you know it."  
"But you'll have some background radiation as well won't you?" Lucy pointed out. "You've travelled through the void and technically into a parallel/paradox world. I mean it died but you were still there."

"Yeah, but not long enough." Jack mused grabbing the 3D glasses on Tosh's desk – Lucy didn't want to know why the Japanese woman had them but suspected she was trying to find out more about 'void stuff'. He looked at Martha under the glasses and smirked. "Nope no sign of anything, still just you."

"One day someone else will travel into a parallel world and I won't be the only one with the threat of falling into hell hanging over my head." Lucy sighed.

"HELL!" Martha yelped.

"The void," She shrugged, she never really thought it would happen but it was still a slight worry to know that with all of Torchwood's experiments it was possible. "The rift between the worlds it has 'no place, no dark, no light, no time, literally nothing. Time Lord's called it the void, others call it hell.'" Lucy knew she'd missed something out of that quote and frowned, everyone else stared at her before going back to the original problem.

"Ok" Jack said with a small smile. No one apart from Martha looked happy about this, the team because they thought that Jack was wrong in risking Martha's life like that, whilst Lucy just didn't want to see this episode out to the end. She'd hoped that Jack could be convinced to let her take Martha's place, she knew what could happen and so she could change it, maybe. Maybe she could change it or maybe she would stop Owen being shot by Copely but he would die in some other way. She couldn't know and unfortunately there was no one she could talk to about her problem.

Lucy frowned again as she turned back to her laptop, flicking from one thing to another as she tried to distract herself. It didn't work and she closed the list of probable trial subjects, her desktop picture changed every hour and currently it was a print screen of the Doctor debating whether he had the right to change time and kill the daleks before they could become a force to threaten the universe. She smiled at the thought of the classic episode before shutting the laptop and going to feed Myfwany, it wasn't needed as she had done so the previous day but it helped calm her down and allowed her time to think.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy walked up to Martha as the older woman walked towards Jack's office to get her fake ID. She had been confused and worried earlier, knowing what she wanted to do but not what she could do. But after talking out loud while she threw chocolate to their pet dinosaur she had a plan and determined not to cry or show the worry on her face. Since joining Torchwood, she had steadily become worse at hiding her emotions, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It was easier to not show your emotions and block everyone out when you didn't have friends.

"Hey Lucy," Martha smiled at her, "you come for that autograph before I go?"

"Err, not quite" Lucy tried to smile back but it didn't quite work "I mean yeah I'd love it and I have my book in my bag – brought it into work with me this morning – but um, I was wondering if I could borrow your phone. I, err, don't have the number myself and I doubt he'd pick up..." She trailed off and the time traveller looked at her seriously before nodding and pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"Don't worry about credit, UNIT pays for it. And Jack's getting me another phone for my cover, so just give it back to me at some point. Do you want me to speak to him first?"

"Please? I just need to ask him something, it's important."

"Not a problem," She quickly dialled the number and waited for the Time Lord to pick up. "Doctor, it's Martha... Nope I'm not calling you back yet, but I've got a fan of yours wanting to speak with you... that's the one, she says it's important... yeah I'll leave you to it. Bye Doctor." She passed the phone over to Lucy who took a deep breath to pull herself together and then spoke.

"Doctor?"

"Hello Lucy." Came the reply and she could hear the smile in it and couldn't help smiling herself, she was talking to _The_ Doctor. "What can I do for you?"

"I need your help" The universe-hopper, as Owen had taken to jokingly calling her, replied as she walked out of the Hub and onto the bay where she wouldn't be overheard. Martha looked at her with a small frown before entering Jack's office, Jack didn't ask where Lucy had gone to and Martha presumed he'd worked out what she had asked for.

"What can I do for you?" The Doctor sounded serious and Lucy wished she could do this face to face, but this was better. It meant she could focus on Owen and not on _the_ Doctor. Her Doctor.

"Jack's told you my story hasn't he? Martha knows so you must too. And I'm not asking if you can take me back, I don't want that. I love it here. But..." She could feel herself start to ramble so she trailed off instead

"But..."

"How much am I allowed to change? I've tried to keep everything as similar as possible, I know that's the right thing to do and I know that's what you would tell me to do. At least, that's what I tell myself you would say. _'You can't change history, not one line'._ I don't want the reapers to appear so the only things that have changed, have changed by virtue of me being here, that's a bit like minor things changing because you're somewhere isn't it? Although, Ianto is with me and not Jack. And I know you said the world was wrong because the most ordinary man in the world was alive when he shouldn't be. But it's not that I shouldn't be alive it's just that I shouldn't even exist, my parents never met here. But they don't seem to have any objection to that, so maybe I was always going to turn up in this universe and the rift didn't just steal me randomly. Everything I know I've kept on track, I did nothing to stop the Master – but maybe I should have done..."

"No you did the right thing. Time is vicious and hurts as well as heals. So what do you want to change?" The Doctor interrupted her babbling.

"A death, many deaths, my friend's deaths, Torchwood's death..." She wasn't going to cry, the tear that was threatening to fall was wiped away before it could. It wasn't crying and she brought up her mental wall - shoving the emotions away so she could do what she needed to. Lucy continued quickly trying to explain before she was told no. "I know what happens because of his death, and I know how it can be stopped, and the good that it would cause if he was alive and what that would mean to the world. But it could also mean that he can't get somewhere else in time to stop something bad. Maybe, I don't know. And you said the most dangerous thing was an ordinary man alive where he shouldn't be. But Torchwood isn't ordinary so does that count, or does it make things worse? And he's a good man a really _good_ man, no matter how annoying he is. But saving his life could lead to more being killed and paths I don't know, but it could also lead to more being saved. And they're my friends and I want to help and I don't want them to think I would let them die, and, and-"

"And you need to breathe" The Doctor said calmly, she nodded and then realising he couldn't see it, quickly agreed. "Ok, I want you to tell me everything you can without giving me any major spoilers."

So she did, she explained how Owen was going to be shot saving Martha's life but that Jack wouldn't let him die and he used the excuse of needing some codes so he used a device to bring him back for a couple of minutes. But that it didn't work and he was back for good only still dead. And how it meant that Tosh died as she didn't rescue herself because she was trying to save Owen and that failed and 'the dead man died again'. She told him everything without any emotion in her voice, as though she was telling someone the weather forecast, although she had faltered when she said how Ianto died and how maybe if Tosh and Owen were alive he wouldn't have gone in there with Jack and how he would live.

Meanwhile she could hear the Doctor making notes and typing equations into the TARDIS, he sighed as she finished.

"You can't save all of them. Time won't let you."

"Right..." She was still trying keep her emotions at bay but it wasn't working and this time a tear managed to fall before she could brush it away, it was followed by another and this time she didn't even bother trying to wipe it off. "Thanks for letting me know Doctor. I just... I just wanted to check, just in case. I'll um, let you go."

"Hang on!" The gallifreyian said loudly down the phone before she hung up on him. "You can't save all of them, but you can save one."

"You can't..." She breathed. "Doctor, please. You can't make me chose between my lover and my friends. Not when one is immediate and the other isn't for at least another year... Doctor please."

"I'm sorry you can't save the others, but even if you tried something would happen and you might not be able to save any of them. Time doesn't like being disrupted."

"What if I save Owen and his life leads to the others living?" Lucy asked desperate to find a way out of this. Suddenly she wished she'd never asked and had gone on in the belief that she had no choice.

"It wouldn't lead to the others being saved." The Doctor said quietly and Lucy tried to ignore him, tried to ignore the little voice in her head that said Ianto could live, that she had to choose Ianto over Owen. "I'm so sorry."

"Right." She tried to pull herself together after a nearly a minute of silence. "Right, well thank you for letting me know. I um... I've got to get back to work."  
"Lucy!"  
"I've got to go" She repeated. "Thank you Doctor." She hung up before he could say anything else and stared out of the bay, she had wanted to know the truth but the truth was a heavy burden and she could feel the weight of the world on her shoulders as she pushed herself off the railing she was leaning against and stood up, drying her eyes and walking back into the hub through the car park entrance so she would have time to sort herself out and act like everything was normal. Like she didn't have one hell of a choice to make and that she subconsciously didn't already know her decision. And that she didn't hate herself for it.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"So she got in ok then?" Lucy asked sliding up behind the rest of them as they watched one of Tosh's screens which had the video feed from Martha on it.

"You back then?" Jack asked as he glanced over.

"Needed some fresh air." Lucy just replied glibly.

_"It's standard procedure to take two blood tests." _The woman on screen said. _"So tell us the places you've been to, Samantha"  
"Well I had a great time in North America, France and Germany. Australia..."_

"The end of the universe is a less well known tourist destination." Lucy added and Jack smirked as he tried not to laugh

_"What about the third world? Africa, Latin America?"  
_"What about a satellite that's falling into a living sun – cause apparently that's possible!" She kept up her running commentary and Owen was going to tell her to stop it but stopped himself after realising it was Lucy's way of dealing with whatever was going on, in the same way he reverted to sarcasm. Tosh sent Martha a warning signal.

_"No" _Martha lied, although Jack and Lucy were the only ones to know it. Martha had travelled the world almost completely by foot after all. _"Although I'm sure to get round to it."_

_"Travel off the beaten track can be a bit of a problem for us." _The doctor said, sitting down on a chair facing Martha, and therefore looking straight at the camera. _"If you had some exotic tropical disease there could be unexpected side effects and volunteers' welfare is our absolute priority"_

"Yeah, want to make sure they are fighting fit before you murder them." Lucy mocked.

_"Oh I don't think they'll be a problem with that." _Martha shrugged off the suggestion. "_And, of course, I'm very conscious of health issues." _Another warning signal was sent and Martha covered her tracks. "_Mum's a nurse."_

"No offence to Martha but I really hope that's not true, Francine as a nurse... ergh."  
"Hey, she's a great woman." Jack said.  
"Well you know more about her than me." Lucy shrugged. "But from the little I saw I doubt she'd be a good one."  
"Well you do have a point there, but she changed... We all changed."

Lucy nodded in understanding and looked back at the screen as someone else entered the room.

_"This is Professor Copely Samantha, institute director."_

_"Hi, Sam, nice to meet you." _Copely said as he shook Martha's hand.

"_Hello."_

"Tell her to get close to Copely." Jack ordered and Tosh conveyed his words to Martha.

_"I see you're a postgraduate student at the moment." _Copely said looking at the file for Samantha Jones that Ianto had put together.

_"That's right."  
"Studying what?"  
"Creative writing." _No one missed the looks that the doctor and Copely shared at the idea of such a course, as medical professionals it was obvious that they looked down on that type of post-graduate degree. _"So I really need the cash."_

_"Well I'm sure you'll understand Samantha that we have a lot of applicants."  
_"She's losing him." Lucy warned and Tosh typed in another warning to the UNIT doctor, to make sure that she wasn't turned away at the gate.

_"We'll let you know in due course."_

_"Actually." _Matha stood up, calling Professor Copely back. _"There is something I should have told you."_

"What's she doing?" Owen muttered.

"Not getting kicked out." Lucy replied. "Surely there were easier ways to do this, Jack. What about you both using your keys and staying hidden that way."  
"Good idea, should have brought it up sooner." Jack said, annoyed that he hadn't thought of it sooner himself. "Martha knows what she's doing."  
_"I mean it'll show up in the test results anyway. I **did** have a hepatitis infection. I mean, I'm fine now. But it stays in the blood, technically its incurable right?"  
"Well, that puts a different complexion on things." _Copely said, suddenly interested. "_We could use a subject with hepatitis. Are you available to start right now?"_

_"Well sure, I've brought my overnight things." _Martha grabbed her bag.

_"Then, all we need is your signature on this confidentiality agreement."  
_"She's in." Owen said with a sigh.

"As Chris Isherwood also said, it's not the getting in, it's the getting out." Jack pointed out. Lucy didn't ask why Christ Isherwood was important or even who he was. She was suddenly more interested with a different problem.

"Jack? What happens when they check her blood work and find out she's not got a hepatitis infection, I mean that's an easy thing to check."  
"We'll worry about that later. All she's got to do is get through the night and get Tosh into the system. We'll get her out first thing tomorrow morning. I'll even let you kick the door down and go all guns blazing."  
Lucy couldn't help but smirk at the idea, one that she knew was never going to happen. Torchwood 3 was going to be broken and try as they might they would never be able to sort it, and it was all her fault. She had a choice to make and no one else could know, at least not yet.

"It'll be good for Cecil and I to go on an outing." She said, as though she wasn't imagining the dead bodies of her friends. "He's not had a proper adventure yet."  
"You've been out weevil hunting."  
"That's not an adventure." Lucy complained, "that was... … well not an adventure. Cecil hasn't had a proper adventure since he shot me."  
"Your mental health would worry me if I wasn't more bothered with keeping you alive." Owen said dryly and Lucy shrugged. On the screen Martha was walked through a few corridors to the room she would be staying at, Martha was making a note to look at every door so they could mark it on their blueprints.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*-*)

"Tosh? Can you help her blag her way into the computer system?" Owen asked

"It'll take time to talk her through it." Tosh replied, thinking, "But if I can get Lucy to be at least able to do things, even if she's not proficient..."  
"HEY!"  
"If I can get her to give me control of the computer." Tosh started typing instructions to Martha using the eye-drive. 'Go to Network, Proxy, Connections... I have control.'

"I am never letting you anywhere near my laptop, what you do isn't human." Lucy breathed.

"Oh, I got in there easy. Really Lucy, 'Toshgoaway' is not a good password."

"Ok, I'll try, 'IfancyOwen' next then." Lucy retorted and Gwen and Jack snorted with concealed laughter.

"Sorry, Lucy." Owen said with a smirk. "You're not my type. Besides, I have a date." His eyes flickered to Tosh and this time it was Lucy's turn to smirk although her heart broke. She had forgotten that, forgotten that Tosh and Owen were on the verge of a potential relationship when Owen had died. In her selfishness in wanting to save Ianto she'd forgotten what letting Owen die would mean.

"Well that you'd better treat her well Owen. After all, she's got a younger sister whose good with guns."

Tosh blushed but didn't say anything else as she started to search through the Pharm's computer system.

_"The life cycle of the parasite." _Martha told them, although they were all able to read it from the screen anyway. "_They call it the mayfly"_

"We've never seen a species like that before" Gwen said.

"It's beautiful."  
"It's lethal."  
"It's a fucking giant insect and I doubt bug spray is going to stop it. But I vote we stock up, just in case."

"But what is Copely doing with them?" Jack said before grabbing the microphone so he could talk to Martha. "Martha, now that we've got control we can download all of this and do it here. Get out of there, pronto."

"Tosh do you have that code-breaker software?" Gwen asked as she went back to her workstation.

"I'm sending the patch through now."  
"Thank you. Lucy, how many clinical trail subjects did you cut it down to?"

"I've got 21 potential suspects and 12 people unaccounted for. I doubt they are all Reset, they have other trials after all. But it was a good way to kill an otherwise boring afternoon. Want the list?"  
"Yes please."

_"BREAK OUT IN ZONE A. I REPEAT BREAKOUT IN ZONE A"_

'Get to safety.' Owen typed and Martha nodded and climbed out of the window of the room she was in. Although she was more interested in finding out what had happened and what had broken out.

"Jack come and have a look at this." Gwen called over. "It's a list of all the subjects, including one that Lucy highlighted as a potential victim. Elin Morgan."

"Executive action." Lucy said looking over Gwen's shoulder. "Jack, does that mean what I think it means."  
"Afraid so."

"What does it mean?" Gwen asked.

"Assassination order. They've got a hitman." Lucy sighed. "Because not having a hitman would make our job easier and fate doesn't want that."  
"Gwen, take Ianto and pull Elin in. We're going to try and get that thing out of her and keep her safe. Lucy find out what you can about Billy Davis."

"No problem, but one minor problem first." She looked over at the screens on Tosh's desk. "Martha is running towards the danger."

"What the hell is she doing?" Owen asked. "If the Pharm have their own hitman it's a dangerous place to be."  
"And I put her in there." Jack cursed. "Tell her to get out, warn her about the assassin. Gwen, you and Ianto need to go!"

Gwen grabbed her coat and gun and called for Ianto, the two of them rushed out to try and save at least one of Copely's victims.

Martha turned and there was a hint of something before it cut out and the screen went black.

"What was that?" Jack asked.

"Radiation surge?" Tosh replied, unsure herself. "We've lost her signal." She tried to re-establish the connection for a few minutes before giving up. "I can't get her back."  
"We have to get her out of there." Owen said  
"That place is swamped in security." Tosh snapped back. "If we try and steam in, we'll be putting her at risk."  
"We can't just leave her in there, can we?" Owen looked to Jack hoping he'd be able to come up with a solution to the problem.

"If I can't get her signal back in 30 minutes, then we think of alternatives."

"Anything could be happening to her in there."

"Martha can handle herself." Lucy snapped. "I know you are worried about her Owen, we're all damn worried about her but she's almost literally gone through hell and has literally had the fate of the world and potentially the whole damn universe on her back. So can you please just trust that she'll be ok for half an hour before we go in and risk her life." She forced herself to shut her eyes and take a breath, a few vital seconds to calm down and not let her temper get control of her. "We give it half an hour, let Tosh try and get the signal back. If it was a radiation spark it could have caused her to need to take the contacts out. If Tosh can't do it, I will break into Martha's locker, steal her key and sneak in unseen myself, incapacitating every guard I come across until I can get her out of there or get you in."

"Lucy's right." Jack said, "Martha's been in worse situations than this, we give her half an hour and then Lucy and I will use the keys."

"What keys?"

"Magic keys that make you unnoticeable!" Lucy growled, "Just make sure you don't forget the medkit this time."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto pulled Billy Davis through the hub with a bag over his head, so he wouldn't see anything.  
"Fancy helping me talk to our guest?" Jack asked and Lucy and Owen both nodded. Anything the Pharm assassin could tell them would be useful. Owen even grabbed the portable medical scanner as well as the medkit so he could keep an eye on Billy's vital signs and use it as a lie-detector.

"Erghhh." Billy groaned. "I've got terrible guts. Don't know what it is."

"Awww Poppet." Lucy mocked. "You've got a tummy ache and you think we care. How cute!"

"Guilty conscience Billy. Try confessing." Jack ordered

"Get stuffed."  
"Ok, let's do it the hardway." Jack was nearly happy about this as he moved to stand behind Billy and Ianto opened the door to Janet's cell. She growled at him but knew all of the Torchwood agents well enough that she knew they wouldn't harm her, Billy though was another matter.

"Merciful Christ what the fuc-" He screamed as Janet launched herself towards him, not quite getting close enough to bit him and would have clawed at him instead if Ianto hadn't cuffed her hands behind her back.

"They have a tendency to act up"  
"I'm losing her." Ianto warned as he tried to keep a firm hand on the chain. Of course it didn't really matter if he let go or not, the chain wasn't long enough, they had put the chair in that spot for that very reason.

"Thinking about finally telling us the truth?" Lucy asked

"Whatever you want. Just get it away from me! Get it off me!" Billy begged and Lucy chucked Ianto some of Owen's updated weevil spray so he could heard Janet back into her cell.

"Ok, Billy, you've been on a killing spree, why?"  
"I work for the Pharm!"  
"We know that bit." Lucy pointed darkly out as she walked over to Janet's cell and leant against the wall next to it, there was no need for her to say anything else the threat was implied and Billy understood it – 'say something useful and I won't open the door again'.

"They've been giving people this rest drug."  
"Know that bit too."

"But there were these side effects, parasites or something."

"Three for three Billy." Lucy tsked reproachfully, "Maybe you're not as useful as we first thought."  
"They were going to die anyway, but I had to kill them before any weird symptom showed up in public. Please don't let that thing out again."  
"Well that's interesting." Lucy mused and looked up at Jack who nodded in agreement.

"Agreed, he doesn't really know anything of value. He's just trying to hide their mistakes. But here's where you can make it up to us, Billy."  
"Anything."

"We're going to the Pharm and you're going to help us get in."

"Yeah, yeah, but my stomach, my stomach." He moaned in pain and started spurting a coughing up blood.

"Owen we need him alive." Jack ordered as he tried to keep Billy's head as steady as possible.

"Yeah, alright. I'm flying blind here Jack."  
"Do something!"

Lucy and Ianto watched, hand in hand, as Owen grabbed the singularity scalpel.

"Let's start with this." He moved to stand directly in front of the chocking assassin and turned the machine one. "Ok, I think I've got it. I've got the calibrations right. I can get it out of him."

The man was shaking in his seat and Lucy winced, it was entirely possible that Owen had it working correctly – after all it would be perfect when he used it on Martha in about half an hour – but with all of Billy's shaking it was unlikely that it was going to work. Owen simply wasn't good enough at using it yet.

She hated to say I told you so, and didn't because she had never actually said her fear out loud and had only squeezed her boyfriend's hand. But the singularity scalpel didn't work; it hit the mayfly but it also literally exploded Billy's stomach splatting Owen and Jack with blood as Lucy and Ianto reflexively jumped back in disgust. Lucy smiled to herself as she noticed that Ianto pushed her slightly behind him as though to try and protect her.

"Owen, deal with it!" Jack ordered

"I'm sorry alright." Owen said grabbing a pair of tongs from the side and using it to pick up the dying mayfly.

"Still sure you had the calibrations right?"  
"Billy _was_ shaking." Lucy pointed out.  
"It still should have worked." Owen replied. "He must have breathed this in when one of his victims died. This could have been me or Martha."  
"Well we'll thank our lucky stars it isn't." Lucy sighed. "I'm going to go check on how Tosh is doing but currently it looks like we're back to the keys being our best chance. You might want to get a towel or something and get rid of that blood."

She walked out of the cells trying to get out of the mind-set she used for interrogations, there were days where she didn't like this job.

And this was one of them, not because of the choice or decision she had made or because of what she knew was going to happen. No, Lucy hated this job because there were times when she had to become her father and some days it took longer than she liked to pull herself back to normal. She walked over to the coffee machine, not daring to touch it in case she broke it – but still needing that moment away from everyone else to remind her that she wasn't her father. She wasn't the same as _him. He _hurt her because he was drunk, angry and because he could. She threatened Billy because her friend's life was at risk and because Billy was an assassin. It was different and logically she knew that. Logic also meant bugger all when it felt the same.

Ianto came up behind her and although she flinched away from him originally she leant into his touch.

"You ok?" He asked quietly, he might not have known exactly what the problem was but was fully aware that she always had nightmare the night she had to interrogate someone like that, and act as though she was cold and uncaring.

"Yeah." She said taking a deep breath and playing with the plait in her hair. "I'm fine." She turned and smiled at him, he didn't believe her.

"Lu..."

"I'm ok, Ianto. Me again, might not sleep tonight but I'm ok for now." She rolled her shoulders back and stood up straight and out of his touch. "Half hour is up, I'm going to get myself a TARDIS key. Back in a bit." She walked away, grabbing a crowbar, towards the locked cabinet that Martha had stored her stuff in.

"Ianto what have you done with Billy Davis' body?" Tosh asked as Ianto walked into the central hub.

"I was just about to dispose of it. Why?"

"I've thought of a way we could us him to get us into the Pharm." Tosh smirked and showed him her idea.

"Oh you are warped on the inside." Ianto praised and Tosh preened. "I'll go get what we need from the archive and tell Lucy that she doesn't need to break into Martha's locker."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Tosh's plan worked, they all hid in the back of the SUV as Lucy silently passed out bullets for their guns. Billy's body was taped to the seat and his hands on the steering wheel whilst Tosh used the artefact to control the car, her laptop on her knees showing her the view from outside and allowing her to be reasonably safe.

They stopped at the gate and upon seeing Billy's body the security guard waved them through.

They were in.

"Tosh, Gwen, Ianto, check out zone A" Jack ordered. "We're going after Martha."

They found her strapped to a table, looking feverish. She was connected to a couple of empty bags and Copely was standing next to her looking at a computer screen as well as Martha's readings.

"HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD OR I WILL SHOOT" Lucy shouted. Copely did as ordered, although he was obviously surprised to see Lucy, Owen and Jack he had been half expecting but Lucy was an unknown quality.

"What have you done to her?" Jack asked as Owen rushed to Martha's side.

"Tell me that's not Reset."

"She survived the larval stage. The only subject ever to do so." Copely said, as though he was discussing this in a professional environment and didn't have two guns pointed at him. "It's fascinating. Turns out these bugs practise sibling cannibalism."

"Yeah, I know some human cannibals that you can meet." Lucy growled. "We stopped their harvest last year, so I'm sure they'll be hungry."

"Put a stop to this." Owen said, he had inspected Martha himself and was unsure what he would be able to do without resorting to the alien instrument in his bag.

"I can't I don't know what happens next, only the strongest individual has survived."

"Here's the deal." Lucy said, almost calmly if it wasn't for the rage in her eyes. "She's dies, you die. I deal with aliens for a living so I have no qualms killing a monster."  
"I'm not a monster, I'm a doctor."

"Look a monster to me. Does killing make you happy? Human race, we're the worst damn monsters in this universe."  
She herded Copely into a corner with a few waves of his gun and every time he tried to lower his hands she gestured for them to go back up again. It might be uncomfortable for him but she really didn't care.

"Jack, I don't know what I can do." Owen hissed

"Owen, stay calm there has to be something."

_"Jack,"_ Ianto said in their ear. _"I can give you a report on zone A. They're holding dozens of creatures captive down here. They seem to be using them as test subjects."_

"Understood Ianto. Tosh, go for total shutdown. This place is a torture chamber."

"I don't need to debate medical ethics with you." Copely said scornfully and Lucy snorted, lowering Cecil.

"Really? You're acting as though this is just some big thought experiment into the works of Bentham for some classroom lecture. This is real, you are torturing living thinking creatures. And yes, this might have all started out with completely moral intentions – trying to use creatures from off planet, sources that haven't been tapped in order to save lives. But it's not that any more is it? Not only are you torturing the aliens but it's not working. The people you are trying to save keep dying, and in case they don't get killed by the mayfly you've got an assassin to kill them instead. This isn't theory, it's not fiction to be cut up and analysed it's **_real _**and people are dead because of you,"

"You abused the Mayflies." Jack accused. "You turned them into parasites"  
"We didn't understand how the mayflies reproduced. We tried to limit the damage."  
"By murdering people."  
"They were going to die anyway." Copely shrugged, he didn't seem at all bothered by it.

"They weren't going to die if you hadn't asked them to be test subjects."

"We're on the edge of the greatest discovery in history. It's got to be worth a few sacrifices. You must understand that Jack, and whoever you are, you're involved in alien research."

"Not like this." Lucy swore. "Never like this."  
"I'm closing this place down." Jack said.

"In your dreams!" Copely scoffed and Lucy raised her gun again but Jack put his hand on her arm and lowered it. "This is a state-of-the-art, official facility."

"We're outside of the government, all we need to do is claim that it's a threat to the planet and we're well within our rights to destroy you."

"It doesn't matter anyway because I'm not going to do it by sending a memo. We're in control of your IT systems. As we speak we're crashing your databanks. Wiping your records."  
"That's cyber-terrorism."  
"And that's just for starters. We're going to trip the systems of your fire, radiation and biohazard safety networks. The power will cut, sprinklers will be activated, and a large part of this facility will be sealed and flooded with inert gases."  
"The aliens will die."  
"They're already dying. This is mercy killing." Lucy hissed.

"For god's sake we're on the same side." Copely tried to explain it to them again. Desperate to stop them from carrying out their very real threat.

"No. Combating hostile aliens is one thing. But this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime."

"Jack I need your help." Owen called over to them, Martha was starting to fit on the bed and Jack and Lucy dashed to her side. Lucy pretended not to notice as Copely slipped out.

"What are you doing to her?" Jack asked as he held her down.

"It's the only way to save Martha. I think I understand how it works."  
"It had better be more than think Owen, I really don't want to tell the Doctor that one of his best friends is dead because of us." Lucy warned.

"I know, I know."

"Owen are you sure it's safe? Owen, tell me you're sure!" Jack said. "You could kill her with that thing. We're losing her."  
Something must have happened because suddenly Martha was wrenching against the hold that Lucy had on her left arm to try and keep her still. She sat up and took a deep breath before collapsing again as the monitor showed a lack of vital signs.

"Owen!" Jack said sharply, "What have you done?" There was a brief moment of silence that seemed to be impossibly long until it was broken by Martha coughing.

"Oh thank god for that."  
"Let's get her out of here."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I'm prescribing rest and recuperation for you madam." Owen said as he and Lucy helped Martha out of the Pharm, she had an arm round each of their shoulders. "And a few days in bed, preferably under my supervision."  
"Owen, I don't know how to break this to you, I've got a boyfriend." Martha said with a small laugh.

"And he's got a date with Tosh." Lucy pointed out. "Doesn't stop him flirting, I swear he's got worse since Jack got back."

"Anyway, has your boyfriend ever saved your life just like I did?"  
"Yeah..."  
"Definitely." Both woman agreed and Owen pouted but knew that they probably wouldn't explain. If Lucy knew it was something to do with the Doctor.

Ianto, Tosh and Gwen were coming over to them, Gwen had the female doctor at gun point and Lucy went to join them.

This was it, the stage was set and nearly all of the players were present. They just needed Copely to arrive and then there was no going back, she had made her descison, now she just needed to be strong enough to see it through and not change her mind. She justified it by saying that if Owen didn't die he wouldn't be able to be King of the Weevils and get through to the nuclear power station to shut it down, but it didn't help. She was condemning Owen to hell all because she was too damn selfish to let Ianto die a year from now. There was no going back from this, this was the day she became a monster.

"Do it." Jack ordered Tosh, who pressed enter on her laptop and shut down the Pharm. Emergency sirens started going off all around them as well as red flashing lights.

'Facility shut down in progress all personnel must evacuate immediately.'  
"Ok, let's go."

'Facility shut down in progress all personnel must evacuate immediately.'

"Did you really think I was just going to let you walk away?" Copely asked, a gun in his hand pointed at them. Lucy noticed that it wasn't a Torchwood gun and therefore he had it before they turned up. Owen moved to stand in front of Martha, who was currently the weakest of all of them. Lucy pulled her gun out and stood in front of Ianto. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now this moment had actually arrived, theory was different from practice like she'd told Copely earlier. It was all very well coming to a decision about a theory, but when it was happening in front of you things were completely different and the earlier logic no longer seemed good enough.

"You've ruined everything I've worked for."

"Now, let's not be stupid, ok?" Owen said trying to reason with the man that he'd previously admired and respected. "We're both rational men, scientists." He took a couple of slow small steps forward.

"I know you don't want to shoot."

Owen took another step forward and Lucy suddenly realised she couldn't watch and do nothing, she couldn't not change anything, but as she started to squeeze the trigger it was too late and Copely shot. Owen collapsed.

"The girl is next." Copely said darkly and Lucy knew he meant her, she shot him in the chest at the same time that Jack shot Copely in the head. Both were kill shots. Both were too late to save the life of their friend.

Martha ran to Owen, Tosh a few seconds behind her grabbing Owen's hand to try and force him to stay alive. Lucy refused to cry, she had made her choice and this was the consequence for her late action, for her not realising that she had to save Owen until it was too late. This was her choice, her fault.

Ianto knew, she knew that, but he didn't know all of it. If it was possible she would have fallen in love with him all over again, for not saying anything, for his ability to understand her helplessness and for still staying at her side.

"Can you hear me Owen?" Martha asked as Tosh sobbed.

"You've got to help him!"

"Owen, Owen stay with me." Jack said now at the medic's side too, trying to do anything to keep him friend alive. "Owen, look at me. Look right at me. Owen stay with me. Stay with me, stay with me buddy come on."

"Owen speak to me." Martha said after she injected Owen with pain killer from the medkit that was in SUV.

Martha sat up straight and shook her head, the sound of sobbing came from Tosh and Lucy managed to separate herself from Ianto and walked over to Tosh's side.

"Come on, let's get you back, come on Tosh." Toshiko complied but her body was like a dead weight, and Lucy was close to carrying her. She looked up at Jack who nodded and picked Tosh up and carried her back to the car. Martha followed and Ianto walked towards the body of their friend.

"I'm going to take one of the cars from here and get a body bag from the SUV. You ok?"

Lucy shook her head, there was no point pretending that she was fine.

"No but I'm better than Tosh. Um, I'll call Rhys and let him know Gwen will be back late. I'll see you back at the hub."

They walked to the SUV together and Ianto pulled out a body bag as calmly as he could. This was one of is normal everyday duties, dealing with the mess that Torchwood left behind, but normal it wasn't the body of a colleague and friend. As he went to go back to Owen's body, Lucy pulled him in for a kiss.

"I love you Ianto, might not always seem like it but I do."

"I love you too." He replied softly, "I'll see you in a bit" He walked away and she got into the car and sat next to Tosh who was almost white.

Tosh grabbed Lucy's hand and Lucy held it tightly.

"You're going to be ok Tosh. I promise." She pulled Tosh into her side and wished it was a promise that she could keep as Jack drove them away and back to the hub in silence.

**A/N: Happy Friday. Hope you've all had a good week and thank you so much for the lovely reviews I've had recently.**

**And I'm sorry I had to kill Owen, I flicked between both back and forth until I couldn't I decided that unfortunately this is the way I had to do it.**

**Also I am working on my own episodes and one is coming up in the next couple of months.**

**See you next week, I love you all**

**Rea**


	43. Chapter 43 - Dead Man Walking, Part 1

"The time is 21:30." Martha said as she turned on the recorder in the medbay.

Tosh and Gwen were sat on the steps whilst Ianto was leaning against the walls with Lucy in his arms. He hadn't said anything to her about her letting Owen die since it had happened 24 hours ago. There would be time to bring it up later when it wasn't such a sore topic and they had had time to grieve. Instead they had just spent the night on the sofa in the hub, both using each other as silent support. Jack had given them all the day off and Tosh, Gwen and Martha had all used it, but the couple didn't want to have to go home to their lives. That made it feel too final, they would have to come in tomorrow morning and not joke about what time Owen would be in. Yesterday Lucy had claimed Tosh as her sister but she had done the same about Owen in the past. He was the annoying big brother and had actually spent the time to remind Ianto of that and had threatened him when they started, _finally_, going out. Torchwood was Lucy's family, apart from a few people (who she had met through work anyway) they were all she had, and although Ianto had a sister it was a different type of family. He couldn't trust Rhiannon to constantly have his back in the same way he knew Owen would, although she would definitely help him in any way she could

"This is Dr Martha Jones. Autopsy on Owen Harper. Caucasian, age 27. Torchwood Officer 3/565. Time of death witnessed at approximately 20:30 on the 12th December 2008. Autopsy begins."

She put the mask over her mouth and picked up an instrument which Lucy thought was some form of clever. She tucked her head into Ianto's chest so she wouldn't have to see Martha make the first cut into Owen's body. Ianto rested his head on hers and she could tell that he was looking away too.

"STOP!" Jack called as he came running into the medbay, through the screen that they had lowered so as to give Owen some privacy. "Nobody touches him until I get back. Is that clear?" He asked, they all looked at him and Martha gave a small nod, as soon as he was certain his orders would be followed Jack ran out again.

"Well, no one can ever say Torchwood isn't eventful." Lucy muttered, Ianto must have heard because she felt his chest move slightly, he was trying not to laugh.

"How long till he gets back do you think?" Martha asked, putting the cleaver down and lowering her mask.

"Knowing Jack, no idea." Ianto said dryly. "Last time he just disappeared it was three months till he came back."  
"Or a year, depending on how you look at it." Lucy said. "He won't be gone that long this time though."  
"So what now?" Gwen asked.

"We wait." Lucy shrugged. "Unless that bleeding heart of yours has any more ideas."  
"Owen is dead!"  
"And he was often the one watching us fight wishing he had something to eat at the same time or asking for naked wrestling" Lucy snorted. "Don't act like you're the only one who cares again Gwen, last time that happened it ended badly for you."

"What are you trying to imply by that?" Gwen asked standing up in anger. Lucy pushed herself away from Ianto and raised an eyebrow at the older woman.

"Not much. I mean last time we lost a member of this team you acted like you were his widow even though Jack's death meant _your_ boyfriend came back to life."

"SHUT UP!" Tosh shouted at the pair of them and they both looked at her slightly embaressed. "Just shut up. Owen is dead and Jack's gone to do something. Can we just wait in quiet?"  
"Sorry Tosh." They mumbled and then shared a quick apology with each other as well.

"Let's get out of here." Martha suggested. "No need for us to stay if I can't perform the autopsy."

Jack came back again half an hour later, they were all sitting in the hub in silence. No one was sitting at Owen's desk and his screen still showed a half-finished game of solitaire.

"Jack what have you got?" Gwen asked as the Captain was holding a small chest, which obviously held whatever he had rushed out for.

He opened it with his back to them and turned round holding the Risen Mitten, identical to the last one apart from the fact that this was its opposite.

"Oh, my god." Tosh breathed.

"You can't use it." Gwen argued. "Not after Suzie."

"This is a really bad idea Jack." Lucy agreed with Gwen. "Let him be dead, let him have some form of peace. Don't..." She was hoping that although she had never been able to stop episodes from happening and this would be a fairly major plot change she could change this. She was unable to save Owen from death but maybe, probably, if she prayed hard enough, she could save him from a living hell.  
"I'm using the glove." Jack interrupted. "I'm bringing Owen back."

He left his office and ran to the medbay, where Owen was still lying his body cold and pale.

"Are you really going to use it after what happened?" Gwen asked as they followed him. "Jack the gloves are dangerous. At best it'll give us two minutes."  
"At worst we don't know. Jack it runs of _life_ energy." Lucy argued, she couldn't tell him out right but hoped that he would pick up her hints. Once more she wished that she hadn't called the Doctor and asked him, if she didn't know for certain she might have chosen something different. She might have saved Owen.

"Who knows what will happen?"

"It's not up for discussion." Jack said as he put the glove on.

"I thought the glove didn't work for you. You all tried it the first time."  
"And if you suggest I use it and it works Owen would kill you."

"Different glove different circumstances."  
"None of us want Owen to be dead Jack. But the last time we brought someone back to life it was a last resort. Suzie nearly killed Gwen and put us all under lock down remember?"

"This time it has to work for me. I'm not going to give it any choice." Jack continued to argue as he placed himself at Owen's head. Ianto looked up at all of them and gave a small shrug as he pulled out his stopwatch, if this was going to happen he was going to do it by the book.

"Ok, if you've got anything you need to say to Owen, anything at all, now's your chance."  
"Jack please, this is a really bad idea." Lucy tried one more time.

"Lucy stop!" He ordered. "I'm doing this so you can look on disapprovingly or you can say goodbye. Either way, it's happening."

He put his hand under Owen's head and the buzz of electricity that they had all come to associate with the glove from before started again. The captain shut his eyes, trying to find the connection that Gwen and Suzie had both talked about when they described their experiences with the glove.

"Owen? It's Jack can you hear me? Owen, hear my voice, get a hold of it. Let it draw you out, pull you out!" Jack was near shouting as though he could revive Owen from pure stubbornness.

"I'm not getting any vital signs." Ianto said, glancing at the screen where all readings were still showing that Owen was dead.

"Owen, it's me, Jack." This time Jack spoke quietly, he knew this was his last chance and was close to begging. "He's coming, he's coming!" Jack looked up and grinned at them as it worked and he used to glove to pull Owen's soul back from the hands of death.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Owen was revived screaming.

"Oh my god!" Martha jumped, she had the least idea of what to expect, although none of them had seen someone come back screaming before they put it down to the fact that it was Jack doing it by force instead of skill and it was a different glove.

"What happened? Where am I? Oh, God, I'm shot. He shot me!"

"Owen you need to listen to me, we don't have all the time." Jack said.  
"Where am I? This isn't a hospital, this is the autopsy room. What am I doing here? Jack?" Owen noticed the glove. "Oh no, what's that?"

"The resurrection glove." Jack replied. "We lost you but I brought you back."

"How long have I got?"  
"We're at 30 seconds and counting." Ianto replied looking at the old fashioned stop clock in his hands.

"Oh, no. Jesus. Really?"

"Ok, team." Jack looked up at the rest of them all standing round the room. "Say your goodbyes. Gwen?"

"Err..." Gwen was speechless.

"Gwen, no offence, but I've only got 2 minutes to live." Owen snapped.

"Lucy?"  
"I'm sorry." Lucy said awkwardly. "I should've... could've done something... maybe... I don't know. Just sorry."

"Yeah, it's just my bad luck right."  
"I'm going to miss you." Tosh said coming to stand next to Owen and Jack. "And I love you. I always have."

"Owen, I need the code for the alien morgue. You're the only one who knows it." Jack said and they all stared at him, this could not have been the only reason that Jack had gone to such lengths to try and bring Owen back. For one stupid code.

"You brought me back for that? For that!"

"I'm sorry."

"Jack..." Owen groaned. "It's 231165. Ok?"

"Sorry. I had to... to help you prepare." This suddenly felt like a very personal moment and Lucy was once more hit with an overwhelming sense of guilt. This was her fault, she might not have pressed the trigger but she let it happen. She could have stopped it. Owen didn't have to be lying there holding Jack's hand as he 'prepared' for Death to take him again. "I know what death is, I want you to be ready."

Owen held Jack's hand tight, needing the support that was offered. Gone was the cocky Londoner who was able to face anything with his own unique brand of sarcasm and humour, and in his place was simply a man scared of dying and the nothingness of what came next.

"There's nothing." Owen whimpered. "Just... just darkness."

"Two minutes." Ianto's words were like a death knoll, they had run out of time. This time when Owen died he couldn't be brought back.

"Jack, Jack..." Owen said.

"Be brave." Jack ordered. "Owen? Owen!"

The monitor flat-lined and Jack removed the gloved hand from Owen's head as their friends died again. Lucy smiled sadly at her boyfriend as Ianto squeezed her hand. Lucy knew that he was trying not to cry, and would refuse to do so in front of the team. When they were finally allowed to return home it would bound to be a restless night for the pair of them as they would allow themselves to grieve and to get over the shock. Even though it would not be the normal type of grieving. She wished that this was it, that it was over. But the trouble was only beginning and there was now nothing that could be done to stop the events that she had helped to set in motion.

"I'm really going to need that hand back." Owen muttered

"Owen?"

"2 minutes 20." Ianto said looking at his stopwatch.

"Look, I'm not using the glove!" Jack said with his hands in the air.

"We don't know how the gloves are different." Lucy pointed out.

"I'm still here." Owen agreed.

"Oh here we go again" Ianto said rolling his eyes, the grief from earlier still visible to Lucy but it was now hidden under annoyance and a look that clearly said he knew that this was a bad idea.

Owen sat up and stared at Tosh as Jack threw the glove away.

"Maybe. I cheated it somehow. Maybe I wasn't meant to die so I'm being kept alive." Owen muttered frantically.

"Or maybe you're just using Jack's eternal power source." Lucy offered. I mean, if Abbadon couldn't drain Jack can you?"

"Can someone pass me my pants, please?" Owen asked glancing down and then spotting the bullet hole in his chest. "Whoa! Errrr"

"It's ok." Jack said calmly. "I hate to say it, but you'll get used to it."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Owen ran up the steps with a stethoscope trying to check for his heart beat once he was at least partially dressed.

"No heart beat, there's no pulse."  
"Owen, you can't lead the investigation." Martha argued.

"Why not?"  
"Because you _are_ the bloody investigation." Lucy pointed out. "Conflict of interest and all those lovely things that you brought up whenever I tried to investigate what happened to me."

"Yeah but this is different."  
"Agreed. I survived my thing. You're dead."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Fairly damn sure and even if you weren't – and you are – it doesn't stop the investigation being about you."  
"Look, there's electrical activity in my brain." Owen said frantically looking at the screen that had been scanning him.

"That shouldn't be possible." Martha breathed, she wasn't just in shock because Owen had come back to life but because of the clear medical impossibility."

"Well, I'm still here and, actually, I feel amazing!"

"So where's the power coming from?" Martha asked and everyone apart from her turned to look at Jack.

"What?" They continued to stare "_What_?"

"Suzie survived because she was draining energy from me." Gwen said spelling it out. "Lucy's right."  
"Thank you."

"Shut up. Anyway, this time Lucy's right, you have an unlimited supply of life force. All-you-can-eat-buffet, remember?"

"I feel fine" Jack said

"Gwen felt fine for a couple of weeks." Lucy pointed out. "She was shot through the head slowly over a month or so, you could be having the same"

"Ianto, do you know where the Philemon Filter is?" Tosh asked. "I was sure it was under my desk."

"I put it away when I last tidied up. I'll go pick it up and grab a shirt for Owen at the same time. He might have to get used to having a bullet hole in his chest but the rest of us don't have to."  
"Gee, thanks tea-boy." Owen said sarcastically but they all knew that he didn't really mean it.

"The Philemon Filter detects biochemical energy." Tosh explained to Martha as she ran the scanner over Jack's body. "It's how we knew Suzie was draining Gwen."  
"And?"  
"Nothing." Tosh said looking at the readings from the scanner. "There's no connection between them. It's not Jack."

"I told you." Jack said walking over to his desk. "I feel fine."

"So what's keeping me ticking?" Owen asked.

"Stubbornness?" Lucy offered and Owen snorted.

"I hate to tell you this Lucy but if anyone is going to stay alive out of pure stubbornness it's not me."  
"Hey, I'm not that bad."  
"Your back was ripped open, and you neck had been sliced by a Roman solider and you still just took a pain killer and kept going for a couple of hours." Owen pointed out. "And that's not counting when you were shot and nearly died because you were 'fine' and had time to have a heart to heart with Ianto before you thought you needed help.."

"Your neck was sliced by a Roman solider?" Martha asked, it seemed that the information she had gathered on Torchwood before arriving didn't even tell half the story.

"He threw it at the same time as a Neanderthal jumped him." Lucy shrugged, pointing at the scar. "Which meant it mostly missed me. And those pain killers of Owen's are miracle workers."

"We still haven't answered the question of how I'm alive."

"But you're not alive though, you're dead."  
"Well the energy in my brain must be coming from somewhere."

"This glove is different to the other one." Ianto said, walking into Jack's office holding it. "Maybe different gloves do different things.  
"Or they do the same thing in different ways." Lucy offered. "I mean the other glove brought you back to life fully, but it was a life for a life. This one seems to let the user live but doesn't bring the dead fully back to life just kind of reanimates them..." She trailed off as Owen stared at her.

"Thanks Lucy, you make me feel so better about myself. I'm some kind of zombie now am I?"

"I don't know." She shuffled awkwardly.

"How many gloves are there?" Martha asked.  
"Two." Ianto replied. "They tend to come in pairs. We fished the first one out of the harbour early last year."

"But where does it come from originally?"

"Good question. No idea." Jack replied. "Tosh, do an analysis of the glove, see if you can find out. Owen, I don't need to tell you that you're under quarantine."  
"You don't and yet you still do." Owen grumbled.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hang on" Owen suddenly sat up straighter in his chair and looked straight at Lucy, who was working at her desk, sitting in a way as to try and take up as little space as possible. "You knew!"

Lucy didn't say anything but slouched in her chair and everyone knew that Owen was right.

"You knew that I was going to die and you knew what Jack was going to do. You even told me you were sorry." He stood up getting angrier and angrier. "You could have stopped this."

She shook her head and pulled her hoodie tight around her. She had taken it out of her locker earlier that day, needing the comfort that the material offered her.

"...I..."

"Not only did you let me die you let Jack bring me back to this!" Owen continued angry at his younger colleague. It didn't matter that in the past she hadn't been able to change anything, this was personal.

"But... I..." Lucy didn't have any defence and knew it, but she couldn't let the others know that in that moment she had allowed Owen to die and put Ianto's life above his. "I... I couldn't..."

"Fuck that" Owen shouted, "I'm dead."

The rest of the team looked disappointedly at Lucy apart from Ianto. She had known he had worked it out but as neither of them had mentioned it they could ignore it, pretend it hadn't happened. But it was out in the open now, they couldn't hide from the fact that she had let their friend die. And yet he was still supporting her. They had only been going out properly again for two months and although before that they had been together for three months she had broken up with him. She might have honestly thought it was the best thing for him but she had still done it, still broken up with him. So for him to support her in this way meant a lot to her and she wasn't sure if she was worth it.

"You should have said something Lucy." Jack said.

"But... Jack please..." She begged, "I don't... I couldn't..."

"Hang on" Ianto said, "she couldn't have done anything."

"I'M DEAD" Owen screamed, "I'M DEAD AND SHE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN"

"SHE CALLED THE DOCTOR" Ianto shouted back, before calming down, "She called the Doctor asking for advice. As she didn't do anything he must have told her she couldn't."

Lucy had curled into a ball, on her chair.

"I couldn't... the reapers... time hurts... I asked, I thought maybe..." she stumbled her words out in the state she was starting to get into. Flinching at every harsh word, with her hands above her head as though she expected to be hit. She was struggling to stay in the moment and the sound of her father shouting and calling her useless was ringing in her ears as well. She'd only ever had a few flashbacks before but had been able to pull herself out of them, with help, but recognising the difference between that and what was happening in reality, but in this reality it was just as bad – her friends all shouting and getting angry with her. And they were right, her father was right, what was the use of her knowledge if she just used it to let her friends die?

Tosh looked at her harshly, normally she would have felt something but all she could think was Lucy could and should have saved Owen.

"You could have warned us, warned me. I'm supposed to be your friend."

"...nothing... could do nothing... had to watch... sorry... so sorry...please don't... leave Becky... my fault..."

Martha, watched what was happening and the reactions of the team and decided to step in.

"Hang on, she couldn't do anything about the Master, or anything else when she knew about it. How is this different?"

"Because she let me die!" Owen was furious, "Because she didn't even say she knew this story. Because I'm now the living dead."

"AND LOOK AT HER" Ianto shouted again, "You say she's like your sister, look at what you've done to her."

Lucy was still curled up in her chair, she had her hoodie pulled tightly around her and crying furiously as well as seemingly having a panic attack.

"I couldn't... reapers... Ianto... hurts... reapers... nothing... Doctor... nothing... couldn't...Becky..."

Martha was by Lucy's side in an instant.

"Lucy? Look at me, breathe."

Lucy shook her head and pulled away from Martha's touch as though she was on fire.

"Death... don't deserve...sorry...so sorry..."

Ianto wanted to kill Owen, but as he was already dead that made it difficult, he knelt down next to her chair.

"Lu, you need to calm down. I know there was nothing you could do." She stared past him, only really seeing the anger on Owen, Tosh and Gwen's faces and the disappointment on Jack's. In her mind she could also see the face of her father and was reminded of how he had constantly told her how worthless she was, how she wasn't deserving of friends. He was right, she didn't deserve friends if this is what she let happen to them.

"...please... please... nothing... couldn't..."

"Lucy, breathe" Martha tried again, "You need to breathe."

"...nothing... had to watch... Ianto..."

"Lucy, I'm here." Ianto tried,

She managed to focus on him

"...Yan?... but...hurts..."

"I know, but you need to breathe"

"...sorry...couldn't..."

He went to pull her into a hug but she flinched, he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Her nightmares had been dying down recently, to the point of only having one or two a week. He knew that after this they would be flaring up again, going back to at least once a night. It was almost a relief as much as a worry when she fainted.

It was at this point Jack knew they had gone too far.

"Ok, everyone who's not Ianto or Martha, needs to leave. I'll talk to Lucy when things have calmed down."

Owen, Tosh and Gwen all grumbled but left, knowing that when Jack spoke like that you didn't argue with him.

Ianto swiftly lifted Lucy out of her chair and placed her on the floor where he put her into the recovery position.

"Ianto" Martha said, "make sure you're the first thing she'll see. We need her to be as comfortable as possible."

They weren't waiting long, a minute or so later, Lucy's eyes opened and she panicked for a brief second until she saw Ianto who smiled at her.

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine" Lucy replied trying to play it down. Ianto just raised an eyebrow at her "Chest hurts" She amended quietly "and my head."

"That will be because you fainted due to an anxiety attack" Martha said, "Can you sit up for me Lucy, breathe deeply," Lucy did so but felt awkward as she did. "that's it, brilliant. Right you can get up now, but slowly."

Ianto helped her up and she immediately curled against him, getting as small as she possibly could and using him as a shield.

"Sorry." She muttered. "I should have..."  
"You should have done nothing." Jack said sternly. "We were in the wrong. We all know you can't change anything and the fact that you called the Doctor to ask shows how much you didn't want this to happen. I would send you home but..."  
"No!" She said quickly "I can work, I've got to do something Jack."

"Fine." He agreed, "But I suggest that until this dies down you stay out of the others way. Work in your office and on the range and I'll talk to them all."

"Thanks." Lucy stood up straight quickly, her legs shaking but not wanting to appear weak in front of him. She already felt ashamed for the anxiety attack as well as the fact that the rest of the team were right, she had allowed Owen to die and that was something she was always going to have to live with in silence.

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, a couple of people have asked about Tosh as you can see from this chapter Lucy's struggling with what she let happen to Owen so letting it happen again will be difficult. **

**Review and Stay Shiny**

**Rea**


	44. Chapter 44 - Dead Man Walking, Part 2

Lucy spent the next hour watching the team on the CCTV, Ianto came in to give her some coffee.

"They don't blame you."  
"They hate me." Lucy sighed. "But that's fine. I'm fine. I shouldn't've reacted like that."  
"It's understandable for anyone to react like that."  
"I shouldn't been stronger." Lucy shrugged. "I shouldn't have joined Torchwood in the first place." She said with a sigh. "If I'd just stayed away it would have happened and I wouldn't have known or cared. You would still just be fictional."  
"Do you want us to be fictional?"  
"No!" She took a deep breath and leant into his chest. "No, annoyingly you're one of the best things to ever happen to me. But you can't deny it would make things easier."

"You can't stop getting hurt by keeping the world out."  
"I can try."  
"And hows that working out for you?"  
"Badly. I used to be good at it."  
"And then you came here and got friends."

"Yeah..." She agreed with a sigh before looking up at him. "Why did you stand by me Ianto?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean that everyone else hates me for letting Owen die. But you didn't, and you knew before all of them and didn't say a word, didn't act towards me any differently."  
"What difference would it make?" Ianto asked. "You tried calling the Doctor to see if you could change it and Owen still died. So, you couldn't change anything. I'm not going to get angry over you not being able to do anything. What's the point?"  
"Owen's going to be dead forever." She muttered going back to her desk and picking up the first file she could, trying to concentrate on something else. "It's not like when Suzie came back, Owen's dead. He can't heal, he can't eat or drink. There's energy in his brain keeping his body moving but that's it. He's dead, but conscious. It's a living hell and I let it happen, I didn't even try to stop it."  
"Everyone in Torchwood has gone through their own hell." Ianto said after a brief moment of silence while he digested what Lucy had said. "Owen will deal with it the same way we all have, because he has no choice. There was nothing you could have done Lucy, and I'm going to make sure that you believe that one day."  
She didn't say anything, unsure of what there was to say because she knew the truth that no matter how hard Ianto tried to persuade her that Owen's death wasn't her fault that simply wasn't true. She had let Owen die in the same way she was scared that she would let Tosh die and Owen die again, simply because she couldn't let death take Ianto – she was too selfish.

Jack called a team meeting and as much as Lucy would have preferred to stay in the safety of her office with Ianto or shooting on the range she knew that she was needed. The team might hate her but that didn't change the fact that she was part of the team and until Jack fired her she had the same responsibility as them to keep the planet and its inhabitants safe.

"Owen's body is undergoing some kind of transformation." Martha started explaining as they walked in, Ianto acted as though everything was normal whilst Lucy kept to the shadows and her head down. Tosh tried to catch her eye but Lucy turned away, she wasn't sure if Tosh was still angry at her or if she was trying to apologise but either was she wasn't sure if she was ready to hear it. "His cells aren't decaying, they're changing."  
"Into what?" Jack asked

"An energy I can't identify. But it's growing, all the time. He's about 40% something else."

"I don't feel any different." Owen was scared, and it scared all of them more than they would have liked. In the past when Owen had been scared by something he had retaliated with anger and sarcasm, anything to hide it and to keep fighting. Now he seemed unable to do either.

"We need to find out where this energy is coming from."

"Presumably it's the same place as the glove." Tosh said, taking over from Martha with what she had been researching on. "Which judging from its atomic make-up isn't anywhere local."  
"Owen said he went somewhere when he collapsed. Could the energy and the glove come from the same dark place?" Gwen asked.

"So what are we talking about here? Another dimension? Parallel universe?"

Everyone looked over at Lucy and she knew that she couldn't keep quiet, she stepped out of the shadow and re-joined her colleagues at the desk.

"I don't think so. When I arrived there was a buzzing sound first that got louder until I collapsed. I don't actually remember travelling between this world and mine." She lied, knowing that if Owen had felt the same thing she had done he would have mentioned it. "One minute I was there and the next I wasn't. Besides Owen says there was nothing but darkness, in the void there is nothing and that includes no light and no dark." She sat down in her normal chair next to Ianto.  
"Well there's an easy way to check I suppose. Tosh if you can look at Owen under the 3D glasses when we're finished here?"

"I'm still here and it didn't feel like that." Owen said annoyed that they were talking about him but not to him.

"Sorry. Ok, you said that there was something in the darkness waiting for you."

"I felt it, I didn't see it."  
"Where do you think you were?" Jack pressed.

"Don't know, but I think Lucy's right. I don't think it was the void between worlds."

"So what now?" Martha asked as they walked out of the conference room, Lucy wanted to go back and hide but knew that she had to speak to Owen.

"Ianto, check the internal system readings for any dimensional anomalies in the last hour. Lucy's probably right but it would be nice to know for certain." Jack ordered.

"Will do."  
"Owen?" Tosh called for the medic before she could and Lucy slipped behind the column out of sight. "What I said, before, when I thought you were dying..."

"I'm not dying. I'm dead." Owen cut her off. "I'm a headless chicken I just haven't stopped running about yet."

"Well, when I told you I..."  
"Yeah, you didn't mean it. I know." Lucy could have smacked Owen. Was he really that stupid?

"You do?"

"Yes... er, I mean, you didn't say anything before and then suddenly I'm dying and it's like, "I love you." That's not love, Tosh, that's grief. You're losing something so suddenly you desperately desire it. Text book response."

"Yeah, but, Owen I... Don't go." She called after him as he walked away from her.

"I'm going to the toilet, all right?" He called back. "For crying out loud."

Tosh stared at him and Lucy slipped out of her hiding space.

"I'll go." She said quietly. "I need to talk to him anyway. I, errr, I am sorry Tosh." Before Toshiko could say anything back Lucy climbed the spiral staircase following Owen.

"You know you're an idiot right."

"And you knew I was going to die." Owen didn't even bother turning round.

"That makes us both idiots then. But Tosh really does love you. She always has."

"We hadn't even been out on that date."  
"And yet the thing that hurt her most when she was reading our minds was the fact that you'd been having an affair with Gwen."  
"For god's sake it was over by then."  
"Yeah but the pair of you were still thinking about it. I'm just saying that what she said wasn't just grief, she really does love you."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway does it, because _you_ let me die."

"And I will apologise until the day that_ I_ die for that." Lucy insisted. "But I couldn't do anything."

"You didn't even try." He spat at her

"I'm sorry Owen. Honestly I am sorry. I tried to stop Jack from using the glove. I thought maybe if I couldn't save you from dying I could at least stop this."  
"And what is this? What's happening to me?"  
"You're dead but you're conscious." Lucy said, she was determined to be honest with Owen about what was happening with him, to tell him everything except the fact that he was going to die again and that Death was going to try and use him as a gateway into their world. "I don't know if your body is going to decay with you still awake or if you'll just stay like that forever. But you can't heal. You can't eat. Your digestive system doesn't work, so you may want another excuse for escaping from conversations than 'I need the loo'. I don't even know if you can sleep."  
"So this is forever then."  
"I think so."  
"I'm going to be the living dead forever and you let that happen?"  
"Sorry." She whispered. There was simply nothing more she could say or do apart from hope that Owen would accept her apology eventually.

"Get out." He said quietly before shouting. "GET OUT!"

Lucy raced back down the stairs away from him, she ignored the team shouting for her and instead kept going until she was in the shooting range, ear defenders on and Cecil in her hand. Lucy kept firing and adding more bullets. The orange light went on but she ignored it needing this time to forget what she had done. Owen was right, she had literally cursed him to a life of death, a living hell.

Every night when she was younger, after her father had finally left - whether it was to go back to the pub, to watch sport on the TV downstairs or to go to sleep - she would clean herself up, wipe up the blood and hold Becky tightly while Becky would ask if there was something she could do to stop Dad being so angry. Lucy would just say that Daddy wasn't happy and that Becky should get some sleep. Becky had never been scared of the monsters under the bed because they were living with a real monster.

Lucy had sworn most nights that she would never become that, never be the reason that someone was so scared, upset or hurt. She would not be that monster. And yet, she had let this happen to Owen. She had let him die and then hadn't done enough to stop Jack bringing him back. Owen was scared and angry and hurt and upset and she had done that. She had become the monster she had sworn to protect others from.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was only when the light turned red that Lucy put the Cecil down and realised she had been crying. There were bullet casings everywhere and most of the targets were ruined, again. She would have to apologise to Jack, he had only just finished fixing the range after she had broken it in training once Owen had given her the all clear from her bullet wound. She wiped her eyes, pulled down the useless targets and walked back upstairs.

"Right that wood carving dates back to the 15th century and belongs to a small parish called St. James." Gwen was saying as Lucy joined them in the conference room.

"Look whose back." Jack said lightly.

"Sorry, I was... well I was busy destroying all the targets in the shooting range. We'll need new targets they're all pretty much unusable now."

"That takes some skill. Especially as they are brand new."  
"I wasn't thinking. What are we talking about?"  
"I'm either Death or King of the Weevils or both." Owen said, filling her in. "Funny how you didn't mention that."

"I honestly forgot about the King of the Weevils thing." Lucy shrugged. "And you're not Death, just dead."  
"Yeah, I'm a zombie."

"Anyway, when this town heard about the plague they built a wall around the town, to keep the plague away." Gwen said going back to her research. "Unfortunately that didn't prevent a little girl from dying. So the legend goes the priest performs a miracle, brings her back to life, but she doesn't come back alone. She brought Death with her and he walked amongst them."

"Are we seriously going to act on something she's googled?" Tosh asked slightly arrogantly.

"What was the name of the priest's church?" Jack asked Gwen.

"Err, yep, St Mary's" Gwen answered going back to where she had written all of this down.

"That's where I found the glove. Which makes the parish of St. James..."

"The town that 500 years later would turn into a city called Cardiff." Gwen finished the sentence for him.

"What happened to the town when Death walked amongst them?" Owen asked

"People died. 12 people. Death needed 13 souls before it had a permanent hold on the Earth."

"So why just take 12?" Lucy asked.

"It just says faith."

"So we've got a priest who brings people back to life and faith to stop Death taking more people." Lucy rolled her eyes. "All very useful."  
"Hey, I found all of this out while all you were doing was destroying the shooting range."  
"Well if you could have found out how to stop it that would be even more useful! Right now you haven't actually told us anything useful apart from the fact we can't let more than 12 people die in the whole of bloody Cardiff."

"Owen is changing." Martha interrupted the argument before Gwen could reply "Who knows what that energy is? What if it's making him a host, a gateway?"

"I've been thinking there's something in the darkness." Owen said "Waiting for me to finally pass over. But I've got it wrong, ok? It's the other way around. It's trying to get here through me."

The strap around his wrist started beeping.

"What's this reading now?" Owen asked frantically.

"80%" Martha replied, picking up the receiver on the table.

"What happens when it completes? We fight monsters, what happens when we turn out to be the monsters, when I do?"

"Even if we have to fight you, you're already dead."  
"And what do we do with the dead?" They all stared at him, not quite sure if he was suggesting what they thought he was. "Come on, what do we do?" He shouted before taking a breath that he didn't need. "You embalm them. If we inject a formaldehyde solution into my veins, it'll petrify my neural pathways and freeze-dry my brain. It's the only way to be sure."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all stood in the medbay in silence as Martha and Jack mixed a formaldehyde solution together. Owen walked in with Ianto and Gwen standing either side of him in support. This was different to earlier, this wasn't just some meaningless death that they were unable to stop. This was done by choice and for the protection of everyone else, this was bravery of the highest order.

There was nothing that could be said, nothing that needed to be said.

Owen was strapped into the chair, the readings from the strap on his wrist showing that he'd hit 95%, even if they wanted to say something there wasn't time.

"Are you ready for the first injection?" Jack asked and Owen nodded solemnly. The atmosphere of the moment was destroyed however when Martha moved to pick up the needle and found the glove on top of it, poised and moving as though it was about to attack. She yelped in shock and it suddenly felt like a normal day at Torchwood and not like they were about to put Owen to Sleep.

"Someone really doesn't like needles" Jack mused.

There was a brief moment where they were all watching, wondering what was going to happen next. The calm before the storm. The glove launched itself at Martha who was able to grab it and try and keep it away from her face.

"Lockdown!" Jack ordered, Martha screamed as she fought the glove, Owen struggled against the straps trying to get out to help as Jack leaped towards Martha to help her pull the glove away. They were able to throw it to the other side of the medbay and Martha breathed a sigh of relief until it flipped itself over and begin scuttling towards her. She shuffled backwards and hit the storage cabinets, cornered by a glove.

Gwen and Lucy both threw a hand down through the railings to help her climb to safety. It was only when Ianto came running back in as Martha collapsed on the landing floor, above the medbay, that Lucy noticed he had left at all. What surprised her more was that he came back holding a hockey stick. There were two surprising things about that; the first was that they even had a hockey stick and the second was that Ianto had decided to grab that and not one of the numerous weapons that Lucy had put in hidden but easy to reach places.

"Owen, Owen, don't move." Jack ordered as he jumped onto the stairs. "Everyone keep quiet and spread out."

They all looked over the railings trying to see where the glove had gone.

"I think it went under the cabinet." Martha said.

"Are you alright?"  
"Yeah, I think so."

Lucy quietly moved so she was standing next to Martha, trying to get the best vantage point. Cecil was in her hands but she knew that she was out of bullets, even if she could see the glove she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

It was as she shoved Cecil back into his holster that it happened. There was a 'clank' as the glove jumped onto the railings. It jumped again towards Martha, but Lucy was there first, and then suddenly the world was dark and suffocating as the metal glove was on her face. She couldn't see properly and even as she tried to pull it off, heard Martha do the same and Jack run to her side, Lucy felt her energy drain. Holding her arms off trying to fight the glove was suddenly hard work and she was using energy she no longer had. Her whole body ached as Jack managed to finally pull the glove off her and she sagged and curled into a ball as she listened to the sound of the fight continuing around her. She was tired but wouldn't let herself give into it until she knew that she was safe.

"Gun." That was Owen's voice, he must have been able to get loose.

"If you destroy it the connection could be lost." Tosh warned.

"Jack! Now!" Owen shouted again, a few seconds later she heard a gun go off and the sound of the glove exploding.

"LUCY!" Ianto called and ran to her side.

"Oh my god." Gwen breathed and Lucy opened her eyes as she leant against Ianto.

"Now, I know the world is ending." She said tiredly, "Gwen's worried, 'bout me."

"What happened Jack?" Ianto asked as he held her tightly.

"It's the glove." Jack replied crouching down. "It did this to her."  
"Did what?"

"Owen, come and help me with her." Jack called for the doctor to come and help. "Owen!"

**"I will walk the earth."** Owen said, but it wasn't his voice it was distorted as though it had many layers and many tongues. Lucy noticed that his eyes were completely black. **"And my hunger will know no bounds."** Some kind of black gas escaped from him, whatever had been trying to use Owen as a bridge to the living world had escaped.

"Well shit." Lucy breathed and shut her eyes, no longer able to fight against the weariness that enveloped her body. "That's not good."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Lucy awoke the first thing she noticed was that she was in a hospital and had different wires connected to her. Her body still ached and she still didn't have much energy but felt a bit better than earlier, not much but a bit.

"No..." She moaned as a nurse leant over her. "No... I shouldn't, shouldn't be here."  
"Shhush. It's ok." The nurse said. "Your neighbours brought you in after you collapsed. They're really worried about you, you're lucky to have people like that to look after you at your age."  
"Neighbours? What? Where's Ianto?" She was still confused at exactly what had happened and what the glove had done to her. Her normal excellent memory for all things Torchwood/Doctor Who didn't seem to be working as she strained to remember what was going on and what was going to happen.

"He's waiting outside with the others. Do you want me to let him in? He's a nice young man."

The nurse walked out and let Ianto in, Lucy thought she heard warnings about something but couldn't enough to work out what was going on.

"Yan?" Lucy asked, trying to sit up but Ianto walked over to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder pushing her back down.

"Don't, you're weak Lu."  
"What did it do to me? Why am I in the hospital?" Lucy suddenly realised that on top of everything else her voice didn't sound right either. She couldn't pinpoint what was wrong with it but it wasn't right.

"Your red blood cell count is through the roof and you're dehydrated. It's putting a strain on your heart." Ianto said, only half explaining. "Owen's had them put you on a drip, but they can't do anything about the blood. He's already heard them talking about how there's something else wrong that they can't place. If it doesn't get better he's going to have to get the last of the supplies from the hub, but he's not got as much of your blood as normal because of the gunshot wound."

"Ianto... what are you not telling me?"

Instead of answering he pulled out a small mirror that Lucy recognised as Gwen's, it was only when he showed her her reflection that she understood. She was 24 years old except she looked nearly 80. Her dark brown hair was grey, almost white, and her face was covered in wrinkles. Laughter lines that she hadn't laughed.

"I'm..." She didn't know what to say and left the sentence unfinished.

"Still beautiful." Ianto finished it for her and Lucy laughed but it quickly became a harsh cough.

"I was going to say old and tired. The glove thing stole my life."

"You age beautifully."  
"You could be my grandson, stop flirting." The door opened and the rest of the team came in, all looking worried.

"Hi." Lucy whispered, feeling tired again. She lifted a wrinkly hand to wave at them, Owen, Martha, and Tosh stood next to her while Jack and Gwen were busy discussing what was going on. "At least we know where the glove got the life for Owen." She said trying to act normal and as though nothing was wrong, as though she wasn't dying of old age before she reached her 25th birthday.

"You're going to be ok." Owen said and Lucy stared at him.

"I may be old, but I'm not... not stupid."

"We'll fix this."

"Stop that thing first."

"The glove was going for me." Martha said.

"Doctor would kill me if anything happened..." Lucy smiled as her eyes drifted shut again. "'m tired." She muttered.

"Go to sleep Lu." Ianto said quietly brushing the off-white hair that had come out of the plait out of her face, in a way that he knew made her sleepy.

"Job to do."  
"I think for now you can be considered retired." Owen joked.

"Really sorry Owen..."  
"I know." He sighed, only this time he seemed to understand it. "I know."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy woke up again, with a deep breath. Ianto had his back to her and she grabbed him causing him to jump in shock. He span round and she could see from his face that she had been de-aged and was 24 again, they had saved the day. It was over.

"I love you." She said pulling him in for a kiss, it was the first time she had said it to him since being shot. "I know I've been a selfish bitch but I'm completely and irreversibly in love with you Ianto Jones."

He laughed and kissed her back.

"I love you too. Don't do something like that to me again."  
"Like what, jump in front of a glove that steals life to protect someone."  
"Yeah, like that. Or get yourself shot I didn't like that either."  
"I'll do my best. Just to be clear, I'm 24 again. You haven't been kissing an OAP have you?"  
"You're you again. Don't worry."  
"Good. Now get me out of here!"

He laughed again and pulled the drip out of her wrist and passed her over her leather jacket. Lucy put it on gratefully, feeling more like herself again with every passing minute as the weariness from her aged body disappeared.

"Let's go find the team." She stood up, took a couple of seconds to get her balance and grabbed Ianto's hand and they walked through the empty hospital searching for the rest of Torchwood.

**A/N: I'm back, there was another work trip and I was going to update early but had an argument with the internet and my laptop. Hence why I ended up shouting at it and putting this up a day late**

**I hope everyone's had a good week and I feel I should warn you in a couple of chapters time is an original chapter that I'm writing with my mate as an RP (cause her character makes an appearence) but this is currently one of the few chapters that I haven't finished. It's not due up till mid/late August anyway but there may be a weeks haitus while we finish/perfect it. It's not for another 3 weeks yet but I just wanted to get it out there.**

**Stay Shiny**

**Rea**


	45. Chapter 45 - Day in the Death

**A/N: Important Author's note at the end**

"Are you ok Lucy?" Jack asked as she and Ianto walked into the hub.

"I'm fine." Lucy said firmly, "I'm no longer in my 80s, my joints aren't creaking and just want to get on with work."  
"I'll get Martha to look over you first." Jack insisted.

"Owen can do it." Lucy replied with a small shrug. It was a small act of rebellion on her part because everyone knew that Owen was going to have to be suspended from being an active member of the team while Jack tried to work out how the whole 'coming back from the dead but staying dead' thing affected him. But as well as Lucy wanting to show support for Owen, she might not have saved his life but she could do this, it was also because after a year and a half of Owen poking her she felt comfortable was Owen doing her regular check-ups. She still didn't like that it was needed, but after being shot and Owen using the blood he had taken from her and stored to save her life she was grateful that he was a good enough doctor to be able to think ahead. Plus he had seen all of her scars – eventually – and knew her well enough that he would have been able to notice any difference. Ianto knew that there was no point arguing with her, he had tried that morning to get her to stay home instead of coming into work; he left the pair to it and went to make the morning coffees. Lucy was stubborn, it was one the first things she learnt, well that and she needed a regular chocolate fix, was an obsessive fan-girl and knew one of his most secret secrets.

"_Martha_ will do it."

"Martha's got other things to worry about." She pointed out. "She's still got to write the reports about why she came here in the first place and make sure every loose end is tied up about Reset and Copely. And you're making her our replacement doctor because of something you did to Owen."  
"Something that you let happen." Jack said slightly spitefully, most of the time he had no problem with Lucy having future knowledge, after all he was from the future and a time agent so he had plenty of knowledge the rest of the team didn't have as well. But it was different when it was personal, somehow everything he had once been taught and his logic went out the window.  
"I tried to stop you!"

"You didn't try hard enough to save him in the first place."

"If you are making her the _temporary_ replacement for Owen" Lucy repeated after taking a deep breath so she wouldn't retaliate to Jack's comment. "She has to learn her way around a new system and where Owen keeps everything. I'm fine, do you really think Ianto would have let me in if he didn't think I wasn't?"  
"I think you've got a lot of sway over Ianto and he believes that you think your fine but was hoping for a medical assessment when you got in. It wasn't like we could get the doctors at the hospital to check you were ok. Owen had to completely wipe any record of you from the files."

"Well I'm sorry for being a freak of nature but I mean it. I'm 24 again, I feel 24, my joints don't ache and I'm fully capable of running after a weevil and doing my job."

Jack sighed and took a deep breath, before he spoke again.

"If you want to go into the field then you need to be medically cleared, 24 hours ago you were 80 years old and had had a heart attack. Martha is currently the Torchwood medic as she's on secondment to us, something you helped organise once she arrived. If you want to wait for Owen to give you the all clear then you'll have to wait until he has been too and that could take some time, until someone has given you an all clear you are restricted to desk duty. That means no shooting, no going anywhere near the weevils or Myfwany and no leaving the hub 'to just check something.' And if you do have to any of those things for whatever reason you will be under supervision."

"I get it. But Owen's a good doctor, and more importantly he's my doctor." Lucy said as she grabbed her laptop from where she had left it on the sofa before Owen was brought back to life. "I've already let him down twice this week by letting him die and by letting you bring him back. I'm not going to make that mistake again, so I'll wait for Owen. I can't do anything else, but I can wait."

Ianto reappeared with the coffees and Jack shrugged as he took his, Lucy had made her choice. He had no idea how long she was going to last but for now she was sticking to it and as much as he wanted to force her to let Martha check her over he knew he couldn't.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What happened?" Tosh asked when she walked into the hub, seeing Lucy look up from her laptop and glare at Jack's office every few minutes. Ianto passed her a mug full of his liquid ambrosia and glanced back at Lucy, who rolled her eyes and tried to focus on what was on the screen in front of her.

"Jack said she needs to be medically cleared before she goes into the field again."

"Which is understandable." Tosh replied confused, so far she wasn't seeing any reason for Lucy to be so annoyed at anyone who wasn't Gwen. "She can't have thought that she was just going to be allowed out like she hadn't just been aged 60 years and back again, and that's ignoring the heart attack. Who knows what effect it's had on her body?"  
"That's not the problem. The problem is that Jack says Martha is currently the Torchwood medical officer and therefore it's Martha who would need to clear her. Lucy says she'll wait for Owen to be capable to."  
"Owen died three days ago."

"Exactly." He gestured at Lucy. "Hence my angry girlfriend. As far as she's concerned Owen is her doctor and therefore as long as Owen is capable of treating her she'll stick with him."

"So she's not allowed in the field then?"  
"Jack's not even allowing her to go and feed Myfwany."

"Ouch."  
"Exactly."  
"And is she fine?"

"She..." He sighed. "She says she feels fine, like normal, but with Lucy... who knows? I do know she's going to wait until Owen gets cleared though."  
"£5 says she won't last the past the first time any of us go to the field for anything more than a weevil hunt." Tosh said gently baiting him.

"You're on."

"Ianto?"

"Yeah?"  
"How do we treat Owen? I mean he died? And I told him I loved him and he said that was just grief, we were going to go on a date..."  
"I don't know." Ianto replied. "I guess we just treat him like normal. I mean this is Owen if we did anything else he'd resent us for it, he already partially resents Jack for bringing him back and us for not stopping it, Lucy more than the rest of us I think but he still... I don't know Tosh. Out of all the Torchwood manuals and procedures I've read there isn't one for how to act when your friend dies and comes back to life still dead. So I guess we act like normal and keep a close eye on him to make sure no more personifications of death are trying to come through and that he doesn't do any more damage to himself, he doesn't heal so it's permanent. As for the pair of you, I don't know that either. I mean Lucy and I hardly did things the normal way..."

Owen walked into the hub in an obvious foul mood and Jack immediately walked out of his office and silently ordered the now dead doctor to come up and see him. Lucy put the laptop down and walked up with Owen, she had pinned her colours to the mast now so she was going to see it through to the end.

"I'd better go join them." Ianto said slightly awkwardly. "If what I think is going to happen happens, Jack's going to want an official unbiased record of it."

"Go on then." Tosh said smirking. "Give me the gossip when you get back. And thanks for the advice."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Doctor Owen Harper Torchwood Officer 3/565. I'm relieving you of your position." Jack didn't beat about the bush.

"Bollocks." Owen argued. "I'm sorry Jack this is bollocks."  
"Hand in your weapon and your security pass."

"Why? I'm fine."  
"Three days ago you died. We need to examine you."  
Lucy wanted to be there to simply show support for Owen, she knew that Jack could throw her out but she had to say something.

"Jack, Torchwood 'examined' you. You examined me, can't we examine Owen and keep him on the books? He's still a doctor even ignoring the whole Zombie thing."

"We need to find out what he is."  
"He's a person. A real life living – dead – person. What are we Jack? Owen had to remove any record of me from the hospital because my DNA doesn't match anyone in this entire universe. By all scientific biological justifications I'm not a human either, I'm a what. You're a what, you don't die. Does that stop you being human?"  
"LUCY!" Jack shouted losing his composure. "I am trying to do the best I can here, you want to wait until Owen can clear you for field duty fine – that's your choice. But right now I can't in good conscience clear him for anything, so you will have to wait until Martha has finished her examinations on him first. We need to be certain he's ok."  
"Yeah, it almost sounds as if you care." Owen said sarcastically as Ianto grabbed Lucy's hand in a silent warning to not push it any further. "Well done."

"Until I'm confident that you are fit for duty Martha Jones will replace you as Torchwood's new medical officer."

"She's doing alright out of this isn't she!"  
"She's worked out a series of tests and examinations."  
"What if I refuse?"  
"You'll be confined to the cells, the tests will be done and if the results show you're a danger to the team, appropriate steps will be taken." Jack got out from behind his desk and walked towards Owen in a slightly threatening way, Lucy couldn't help but be reminded that Jack had trained under the Time Agency and had been a conman. He might be working for the 'right side' now, basing his ethics on the Doctor's but he was still dangerous.

"You're fine Owen." Lucy said "Let Martha do the tests and then you can clear me and we can get on with our lives."  
"Oh so you know this then? That I'll be fine? In the same way you knew I was going to die and didn't tell anybody?"  
"Yes." Lucy sighed. "Please Owen. None of us wanted this to happen and if I could go back and change it I would – screw the consequences I would change it and muddle through the future unknowing like everyone else. Please, just give me your gun. I'm on your side, we're all on your side."

"I'm asking you Owen." Jack said quietly. "Let us help you, let us make sure you're safe. If Lucy's right then it shouldn't take long."

Owen sighed and pulled out his gun from where he kept it tucked into the back of his jeans, with one last look at the gun in his hands he passed it over to Lucy who automatically checked it over even though she knew that the medic always kept his weapons in a good condition, a habit she was sure had been drained into him at medical school.

"And your security pass." Ianto reminded him. "Please." Owen pulled it out of his wallet and angrily passed it over to Ianto who calmly put it in a Torchwood evidence bag. Owen glanced out of the window in the office to where Martha was standing.

"How long are Dr. Jones' tests going to take?"  
"As long as needed." Jack said calmly glad that Owen had co-operated with them.

"Hopefully not too long though, I need you to clear me so I can go into the field. Apparently being 80 and having a heart attack means I can no longer chase weevils or play catch with Myfwany. Not that I thought it would let me into the field but... well a girl can always dream."  
"Can't Martha check you over?" Owen asked and Lucy shrugged.

"Yeah, she could. But you're my doctor, you might be dead but you're the only one who isn't the definitive article that I trust. So... I'll wait."  
"Um thanks I think." Owen wasn't sure how to respond to such a show of faith from the younger woman after the events of the past few days. "What am I supposed to do in the mean time?"  
Lucy shrugged and looked at Jack.

"I've always got more paperwork that he could do, deciphering old archive files, he's a doctor which means he can read illegible writing..."  
"No, for the time being he's not a Torchwood officer which means he can't see classified files." Jack picked up his empty mug. "We always need someone to make coffee..."  
"Oh no." Owen breathed and Lucy stared at Jack in shock, before looking back over at Ianto who seemed horrified at the idea of letting anyone – let alone Owen – at his precious coffee machine.

"Jack, its rule number 2. Only behind the whole no playing with the rift thing. No one touches Ianto's coffee machine."  
"He can teach Owen how to use it."

"Owen you're great." Lucy said. "And I trust you with my life – I have many times – and you've stitched my up and pulled me back from death. I am more grateful for that then I could say and it would be weird if I tried, so I won't. But no offence I don't really want you anywhere near my coffee. I mean the stuff that Ianto makes is liquid gold."  
"Oh no, it's fine. I agree. This can only go badly."

"What are Owen and Ianto doing?" Gwen asked as Lucy sagged against the sofa trying not to watch the sacrilege going on in the kitchen.

"Ianto is teaching Owen how to use the coffee machine."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Henry John Parker." Jack said as everyone apart from Owen sat in the conference room. "Used to be a looker, now he's 80odd and even I have my limits."  
"Hey, it's hard work being 80odd." Lucy said jokingly. "Trust me, everything aches."

The door opened and Owen walked in holding a tray of mugs, delicately balanced on one hand as he tried to remember what he had put in each mug.

"Didn't we file him in the 'mostly harmless' category?" Owen asked as he handed them a mug each.

"So what's the problem?" Martha said, confused as to why they were having a meeting about someone Torchwood considered 'mostly' harmless.

"I detected this at 5:17 this morning." Tosh explained. "Parker's house. There's an energy spike coming from it. I've never seen anything like it before."

Everyone went to take a sip of their drink and quickly discovered that Owen had given them the wrong ones and that Lucy's was the only one he had got right, but that could have had something to do with the fact that it was a mug that Tosh had got her for her birthday that said _'I'm not short, I'm concentrated awesome'_. The minute his back was turned they all quickly swapped them and passed the drinks over to the correct person. Lucy pulled a face as she drank hers, and Ianto gave her a warning look, it wasn't that it was bad, it was simply that it was nowhere near as good as the standard she had got used to. Lucy suddenly felt sorry for the others, when she and Ianto, eventually, went home she could have proper coffee made for her. The rest of them didn't have that option and were stuck with basic at home and Owen's attempt at 'proper' at work, even Ianto couldn't work miracles on the medic.

"Ok so the big question is, what's our Mr Parker gone and found this time?" Gwen said with a shrug, agreeing with the face that Lucy had pulled about the standard of their coffee, not that she would ever say she was agreeing with Lucy though. She still had some pride.

"Why do you think he's a threat?"  
"Well he hasn't been up until now. He's a bit... Howard Hughes."  
"Collectors can be dangerous." Lucy said with a shrug. "In 2012 the Doctor and Rose meet a man who's obsessed with alien artefacts and collecting them. He can't understand them so he puts them into a museum, locks them up. Only trouble is, he finds something alive, something dangerous and suddenly all the broken artefacts in the world can't help."  
"What is it?" Martha leant forward interested.

"Something the Doctor was quite happy to see dead," Lucy said darkly. "Rose didn't agree because it pulled a pity party on her 'oh woe is me... they're drilling into my casing and it hurts... help me."

"Casing?" Jack asked picking up on her tone of voice and that one word.

"Oh yeah, it's casing. Turns out daleks can act, badly, but well enough to pull on the heartstrings of at 19 year old."

"You're not saying that you think Mr Parker has a dalek?"  
"Oh god no." Lucy laughed darkly. "And _your_ doctor has already stopped it, he stopped it before he met you Jack. He just hasn't done it yet for Earth. Anyway I was just trying to say that sometime collectors can be dangerous, it depends what they collect – farthing collecting is one of the safest habits out there. It gets a bit complicated when it comes to alien artefacts."

"Well we know Mr Parker is there and so far he hasn't been a threat." Gwen said passing the print outs around. "But the story goes that he hasn't left the house since his wife died. Nobody's seen him since 1986."  
"We've been monitoring Parker for ages" Owen said putting the towel down and finally pretending that he hadn't been listening in on their conversation. "There's nothing to be scared of, is there? I mean providing he hadn't got a live scary dalek part of his collection..."

"Unlike Tintin?" Lucy asked, "because that makes more sense than being scared of a dalek or the nestine consciousness before you bring that up."  
"Ok, well I never liked Tintin."

They all smirked and for a few minutes everything was back to normal, it was just like it had been before Owen died. They were all friends and subtly, and not so subtly, taking the piss of out of each other as they worked out how to deal with another potential problem.

"What? He's weird. Funny face. And his hair is just," Owen shuddered. "it's horrible."  
"I always loved Tintin." Ianto said conversationally.  
"Well you would. And he never had a girlfriend did he, just the dog. So I reckon he was actually shagging the dog."  
"Ergh Owen. Please keep your perverted Rule 34 thoughts away from the rest of us. You do realise we have the Tintin books at home, I'm never going to be able to look at them again."

"Rule 34?" Jack asked interested. "I don't remember the rule list going to 34."

Martha had been impressed by their list of rules that they had slowly been adding to after every major event – they were currently at 28 rules for specifically for Torchwood 3 and 5 for just Torchwood in general.

"Basically the internet can and will turn anything into porn." Lucy said drinking her substandard coffee. "Can we please move on from Owen's thoughts about a children's comic book."

"Agreed." Gwen said swiftly. "Back at Torchwood there's an alien energy pulse, now that Lucy has told us scare stories of collectors gone bad and has confirmed that there isn't a lone dalek in an old Tudor house on the outskirts of Cardiff can we please work out what to do. We've got to check Parker out." She looked at Jack for confirmation who just nodded. "Tosh can you get me a complete schematic of the house? Ianto find out exactly what he's got get me an inventory of everything that he's bought over the last 10 years. Martha can you get hold of his medical history?"

"Sure."  
"Ok, and Lucy?"  
"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow and cross her arms waiting for Gwen to give her an order.

"You can, help Ianto or something..."  
"I'll find out as much as I can about the people he's got working for him, see if I can find us a way in that way."  
"Us?" Jack asked, "that mean you want to go into the field on this one?"  
"It means us as in us Torchwood, as a group or a collective that I am part of. Not us specifically that are going to go into the building. I'm quite happy being part of the support team you know."

"Just checking. All you have to do is say the word."  
"And Martha will whisk me away on a unicorn to a magical land where she can make sure that I didn't do my 24year old heart any damage when it was 80 and had a heart attack. Oh and she can check all the other scars across my body as well and start a series of investigations on me, just to see if she can find anything Owen can't in my blood. Who knows, I might be sitting on the solution to any number of genetic problems. Yeah, I think I'll wait." She shoved her chair back and walked out.

"I wouldn't do anything invasive if she didn't want me to." Martha said as she watched her go. "I mean yeah, I'm interested, but…"  
"Don't worry about it." Owen reassured her. "We had a fight for almost all of the first year every time I wanted to do her monthly medical. It's nothing against you personally. She still argues with me as a matter of principle now."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Jack!" Lucy called running into his office. "Owen's just run off the end of the pier."

"How long ago?"  
"I ran here straight away. You might want to stop him being a suicidal zombie at some point."  
"How am I supposed to do that?"  
"Talk to him?" Lucy offered with a shrug. "I mean you've gone through big life changing things. You lost your mortality as well, just in a different way. He's still Owen, Jack."  
"I know." Jack nodded. "I know he is, but until he gets through this I can't have him on the field. He's too much of a risk to himself and everyone around him. Plus he doesn't heal, what if he breaks some bones, or he gets shot again?"

"Then he deals with it then. We all know the risks of being a member of Torchwood Jack. Not everyone might have known when they signed on but we all know now. I've been shot, Gwen's been shot, God knows you've been shot, Tosh hasn't but she read all our thoughts while her girlfriend secretly planned to eat her heart, Ianto shot Owen and was shot at by Cybermen and Daleks at Canary Wharf. We're all broken goods. I'm not saying that right now he's in the right frame of mind to go into the field. Because he isn't, he died 3 days ago. But he's a doctor – he's a damn good doctor and you've taken that away from him."  
"Did you come in here to give me a lecture or to tell me that he ran off the pier?"  
"Just to tell you about the pier, thought you might be interested, and that maybe you want to be there when he finally resurfaces. He doesn't have to breathe so it could be a while."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Ianto, what have you found out about Parker?" Gwen asked, she had taken control of this simply because none of the others argued for it. There was nothing about it which linked to Gwen's speciality, although Gwen was the only member of the team to not have a speciality and was more interested in the general goings on and 'being a leader'. Lucy scoffed, Gwen still seemed to think that because she had taken over while Jack had been with the Doctor nearly 6 months ago that it made her the next authority figure under Jack and therefore she could instruct them. She couldn't speak for Owen and Tosh but knew that it annoyed Ianto as well as her and although he would never say anything at work he had no problem being annoyed at her in the confines of his own flat. For example finding out everything that he had bought in the past 10 years over night was a ridiculous task and yet she seemed to think that he could simply find it all with one click of a button and therefore had time to do that as well as keep the hub tidy, work in the tourist office and any other 'small' tasks she asked of him as well as his actual job of archivist.

"I've identified some of the things he's purchased over the past year." Ianto said pulling a piece of paper out of his suit jacket. "We've got a Dogon eye. A pair of Myakian wings, some meteorites. An Arcateenian translation of James Herbert's _The Fog. _But there are a few things we've never seen before."

"So one of these is causing the energy spike?"  
"That would seem the logical conclusion." Lucy said sarcastically. "Unless you think an alien translation of a book could do it?"

"They're getting bigger." Ianto warned. "Dangerously bigger."  
"Well as Lucy pointed out at least we can rule off the book. Oh that and you told us yesterday that it wasn't a dalek, so we can cross two things off the list of what it is. We need to get in there. Parker employs a Mr Philip Farrington to run security."

"And he's good at his job." Lucy said taking over swiftly and ignoring the barb from the Welshwoman, they both gave as good as they got after all. "There's at least six guards and CCTV everywhere. But I've been looking up the guards they're good but have family members, one's got a pregnant wife. We've got ways to distract them that means we can get in. We can get rid of the CCTV by just turning the power off to the manor house."  
"Yes but then we reach another problem. Heat sensors."  
"As in body heat?" Martha gasped and Gwen nodded.

"Solar powered. There's one in every doorway, every window."

"So, how do we get past them?" Ianto asked.

"Sounds like you need a dead man." Owen said from behind them, he still had a towel around his neck from where he had been drying himself off after spending 36 minutes in Cardiff Bay. "Someone with no body heat. Come on, what have you got to lose?"

Lucy was pulling Owen's gun out of her spare holster the second Jack nodded his agreement.

Tosh walked down the corridor to join them and Owen looked at her awkwardly.

"Tosh..."  
"I turned your telly off." Tosh said passing him back his house keys before walking down the corridor again and back to her workstation and her reliable computers.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"If you hurt yourself you are not going to recover." Martha warned Owen as he checked the bandage on his hand from where he had broken three of his fingers and sliced it open with a scalpel. "It's like I said you are not going to heal. Do not engage in physical combat. One punch, you're gone. Be careful"

"I understand. I'm made of glass."

"Tough fibre glass though." Lucy said with a small smile. "If things don't go as planned, we take plan B."  
"I hate to ask but plan B?"

"I run in all guns blazing and attract their attention towards me while you slip past."

"I'll try to keep it in mind although I think tea-boy might not be happy with it."  
"You're the tea-boy now, remember."  
"You hate my coffee."  
"Yeah." Lucy admitted with a grin. "I do, now stop talking to me and go and do your job."  
"Yes ma'am." He saluted with a joke before looking over to Jack and turning away.

"Oh and you'll need this." Jack said, calling Owen back long enough to catch a white t-shirt that was thrown in his direction to protect his hand while he broke the fuse box. Owen's black clothes allowed him to disappear into the darkness as he hid the white t-shirt under his jacket.

"Would you really run in all guns blazing?" Martha asked and Lucy shrugged.

"Oh hell yeah. And then Jack would be forced to run after me cause I'm not allowed out on the field and I can use him and a human shield while I take all 6 of the guards out with either the stun gun or Cecil, depending on how close I could get."  
"Hey!" Jack joked. "I could take offence at that."  
"What being pressed up tight against my body?"  
"Well no, although Ianto might, unless you two..."  
"Have not changed our minds about a threesome." Lucy cut him off. "Maybe we should pay attention to Owen."

"You were the one who brought it up."

"I said I'd use you as a human shield. I did not invite you to my bed."

"_Can you please stop_?" Ianto asked over the headsets and Lucy was reminded that the rest of the team could hear what was being said. She had got so used to them over the years that now forgot when she was wearing them.

"Stopping."

"For the record Lucy, you're out here under supervision by myself and Martha and I have no intention of letting you leave my sight."  
"So I'm still effectively grounded, well that's new. Don't remember the last time I was grounded."

Lucy was glad Jack was letting her come out with them though.

"_Owen_." Tosh said

"_Yeah, hi, Tosh._"  
"_Ok, the power in the house is supplied from one private electrical generator. There's a back-up unit but take the main one down and you've got one minute twenty of blackout time."_

_"__You can only get rid of one of the blokes yeah?_"  
_"Might look a bit suspicious if there were two phone calls._" Ianto pointed out.

_"__Try and make it the big one."_

"Yan, one of them is the one with the pregnant wife." Lucy said remembering her research the day before and the time Tosh had spent hacking the CCTV to see if they could work out what the rounds were so they knew who to call. "He'll leave within seconds."

"_Arse._" Owen whispered, also remembering the research and knowing that it wasn't the bigger of the two who they were getting to leave the scene.

Martha, Jack and Lucy waited in the SUV while there was radio silence, waiting for an update from Owen that he had reached the generator. Lucy had a new found respect for Ianto and Tosh who didn't always leave the hub and would direct them, waiting while her friend was in danger was not fun. No matter how certain you were that he was going to live through it because he didn't die again for another few episodes.

_"__I'm here." _Owen said, there was some other muffled sound from him before. _"Ok, guys. Very funny."_

He'd obviously dealt with whatever problem he had and found out that the t-shirt there for his protection was a Tintin one.

"_No, no, no, no, no. Want to see what I can do? … This."_

The electricity in the house flickered before finally cutting out and Owen was in.

_"__I'm dead already mate."_

**"****Webb? Dave are you there?" **Tosh had found out the wavelength of the radios that the security guards were using which meant they were able to listen in and find out what was going on.

_"__1 minute 20 before the back-up generator comes back online."_

**_"_****Farrington to all units. The backup generator will be running in 45 seconds. Stay at your posts please. Mr Parker's personal generator is unaffected."**

_"__Sorry Owen." _Tosh apologised. "_They've obviously had some work done"_

_"__Heat sensors." _Owen said quietly. "_I am literally too school for school."_

"You are literally an idiot." Lucy snarked.

_"__Well I got in didn't I. Tosh?"  
"The energy signal is coming from the first floor. In a room at the back of the house."  
"Can you be any more specific?"  
"No. The energy source is playing havoc with the system. Sorry."_

_"__No worries, I'm getting used to being in the dark."_

"_Evening. Nice place you've got here" _Owen said and Lucy winced, he wasn't speaking to them. He'd been caught. And because Owen was Owen he was going to talk himself out of it. And not in a clever Doctor sort of way, in a 'sarcastic-I'm-going-to-confuse-the-fuck-out-of-you-because-I'm-dead-and-I-can' Owen sort of way. _"Love what you've done with the pictures."_

_"_If you become a dead zombie I will make you the only person to die three times." Lucy warned.

_"__Nah, you won't. You're a security guard. That gun's just for show, isn't it? Do you know what a bullet does to a living person? It's not like a knife through butter. No, no, no, no. It rotates, tears into the flesh and the goey stuff behind. Rips into the organs, ooh, it's not nice. But anyway, I haven't got any body heat, you must know what that means... You can't kill a dead man... I'm wrong... I'm broken... I'm Dr Owen Harper. And I'm having one hell of a day." _They couldn't quite hear what the security guard was saying but could work out the gist of it. After hearing thud, which was probably just Owen knocking the guard out, the doctor spoke again.

"_I'm fine and I have another gun for the armoury Lucy."  
"_Good. Now you just need to work out what it is that Ianto's going to be putting in the archive."

_"__Yeah, I'm working on it."_

_"__I'm going to amplify the power of your headset Owen." _Tosh said. _"We need to be able to hear everything that is going on your end."_

_"__Yes..." _It was an old voice that broke the silence next, and they all knew it could only belong to Henry Parker._  
"It's ok mate, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a doctor."  
"You're a very violent doctor. I've been watching you."  
"Henry Parker, yeah?"  
"You're Torchwood, yeah? Did the American send you?"_

_"__Yeah, he sent me. How do you know so much about us?"_

_"__They could have sent that Japanese girl. I like her." _Parker said and Lucy had to hold back a smirk knowing that Tosh would likely be blushing in the hub.

_"__Yeah, well I'm sorry you got me." _Owen said dryly.

_"__Is she on your phone thing? The earpiece?"_

_'_How does he know so much about us?' Lucy scribbled on a piece of paper and passed it over to Jack so they could continue listening to what was going on. Jack glanced at it and shrugged but from the look in his eyes Lucy didn't doubt that her and Ianto would soon have another job – primarily finding out where Parker was getting all his information from.

_"__Hello, just to say you've got very lovely legs. You should show them off more." _Parker said flirting through the radio waves although he was cut off by a coughing fit.

_"__What's wrong with you?"  
"Three heart attacks and a failed bypass. But I'm fine because I have this. It's called the Pulse."_

_"__You know what it is?"  
"I named it. It's keeping me alive." _There was a buzzing sound as Owen started to scan the 'Pulse'. "_No you're not taking it."  
"It could be dangerous. We've been detecting massive energy readings."_

_"__I don't care. All I know is it works."_

_"__Well I'm sorry, it doesn't."  
"The energy isn't going into you. The powers just building up inside that thing. That's what we've been detecting but it isn't actually doing anything for you."  
"You're wrong. I can feel it. No, no, I'm not going to die."  
"Listen, please, listen to me. There are loads of people's lives at risk. If that thing explodes, then we don't know what the fall-out will be."  
"You're young, you don't understand what dying feels like."  
"Believe me, I do. I really do."_

_"__There's nothing there!"  
"Where?"  
"On the other side, nothing, I'm dying. Take away my Pulse and I'm gone. My body. Decomposing."  
"You can't stop it Mr Parker. I'm sorry but it's going to happen one day."_

_"__It'll be dark and I'll be alone."  
"Where are you now? It's dark and you're all alone. So what's the difference?"_

_"__I don't understand what's keeping me here." _Parker started coughing again badly and they could all tell he didn't have much longer to live. He was an old man and his body was failing him.

_"__Deep breath, deep breath. It's hope. That thing, it's just hope. You really think all this is better than death?"  
"It's got to be. It _is_ better!"  
"You're just scared of the darkness, join the club. Trust me I know how shit everything can be."_

_"__Don't you sit there pontificating." _Parker scoffed. _"You're just a boy. What do you know about anything? I've travelled the world. I fought in the war. Started my own business. I made a fortune! Married. Widowed. My collection, all of it, I've done so much. And this is where I ended up, alone, lying in my own piss. And do you know what I want?"_

_"__Clean sheets?"  
"I want a steak. Medium rare. Black pepper sauce. Look at me. Fed through a tube. I might as well be dead already."_

A high pitched whistle interrupted Parker and judging by the readings on the portable scanner it was the Pulse that was making the sound

"_I might as well be dead." _He repeated _"Why don't you take it. Take it."_

_"__Well?"_

_"__Oh Christ it's dark. I'm alone, I'm so alone."_

Lucy wanted Ianto, she suddenly wished that Jack hadn't brought her out to be the supervised back up, that he had stuck with his firm resolution of no field work and that she could be in the hub, pacing as she listening to what was going on while Ianto grabbed her hand to stop her. She might have been with Jack and Martha but it wasn't the same and she felt alone.

_"__It's alright." _Owen said reassuringly. "_I'm here with you." _Henry Parker moaned in pain.

_"__I'm still stuck here though. In this bed. In the dark."  
"You know what. I'm going to come back. You and me. We're going to face all of this, together. I'm going to help you."  
"Torchwood! If you come back, you can tell me all about it. Tell me what it's like. I want to hear about the aliens and everything!" _He spoke in a hushed and frantic tone, knowing he didn't have much time left and wanting to grab at the opportunity to learn more about his passion. _"I need to know that there is more out there. That this isn't all there is. Oh, come on. I'm dying. Who am I going to tell? The Angel Gabriel? If you come back, I won't tell the Japanese girl that you're still holding me hand."_

_"__Well maybe."  
_There was another coughing fit and a beeping from one of the machines. This time was obviously worse than the others and they all waited to hear if Parker was going to make it or if this was it.

_"__Here, take a deep breath. Mr Parker?" _It sounded like the heart rate monitor was flat-lining. "_Henry?" _Owen got on with his job, he was a doctor so he was going to save a life.

_"__I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." _Owen moaned and Lucy knew that it was it, Henry Parker had died and Owen wasn't able to save him.

_"__Owen?" _Tosh called over the headset, she wasn't happy about having to while Owen was clearly unhappy but this was important. The job wasn't over yet. "_Owen can you hear me? Owen, come in!"_

_"__Yes. Yeah, I'm here."  
"The device? Is it doing anything because the energy levels coming from it are... Owen? It's going off the screen. It's going to explode."_

"Tosh what can we do?" Jack asked

"_Nothing! There's nothing." _The Japanese woman was obviously panicking.

_"__It's ok. I'm going to hold it."_

"Owen what are you doing?"  
"_See if I can absorb it."  
"Owen the energy readings off the scale. You won't survive."  
"That's ok. These things happen."  
_"There must be something we can do." Martha muttered.

"_Martha, Martha."  
"_Owen_?"  
"If it destroys me they're going to need a new doctor. You've got all the credentials, medical skills and a cracking arse."_

_"_She's only on secondment and I've already got you trained up." Lucy said hastily. "I'm not losing one of the only doctors I trust."  
Owen laughed.

_"__You'll be fine. You always are aren't you, the great Lucy Smith?"_

"I hate you."

_"__No you don't. Jack? If you even attempt to bring me back again... Gwen, Ianto, it was fun mostly. Thank you. Tosh. Tosh come on, answer me."  
"Owen."  
"I'm sorry." _He spoke in a small quiet voice and they all knew he meant it and regretted hearing such a personal moment between the medic and the technician.

"_I love you."_

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

__They jumped out of the SUV, Ianto, Gwen and Tosh walking up the plass to meet them. Lucy ran and gave Ianto a hug. She needed to know that although she was different to everyone she wasn't alone.

"Well I'm sorry Dr Jones." Owen said with the smallest of smirks. "No vacancies in Cardiff just yet."  
"That's ok. I reckon you're..." She paused. "I was going to say just fine, but I think you're a hell of a lot more than that."  
"Thank you. For everything" He kissed her on the check and then gave her a hug goodbye.

"Oi!" Jack said teasingly reminding Owen that they were all watching.  
"It's what I'm here for." Martha said before moving on to say her goodbyes to the next member of the team, she hugged Gwen, Tosh and Ianto who wished her well before moving onto Lucy.

"Back to London and UNIT and the high life then?"

"Back home. You know we never really got the chance to talk."  
"What between having to deal with psycho alien torturing doctors, you running a post-mortem on my brother, him coming back to life, me being 80, me being normal again and then him going to rescue an alien fileofax?"  
"Sounds about right." Martha laughed.

"You know you never gave me that autograph..." Lucy pointed out and Ianto rolled his eyes pulling her autograph book out of his pocket – he had rescued it from her desk while they were coming back from the Parker mansion.

"Oh alright then." The time traveller grabbed the book and flicked to a page with her face on. "You know that this is weird don't you."  
"I got over that when I started going out with my fictional crush." Lucy said with a shrug. "oh and I wanted to ask your permission for something. There's a disk of Doctor Who that's commonly thought of as one of the best out there and I don't think it'll do any damage to the time lines to show the rest of them. I wanted to ask your permission to let them watch it."  
"What's on it?" Martha was intrigued and a little bit worried.

"The weeping angels – from Sally's point of view – and the time in 1914, when he was John Smith."

Martha thought for a minute about that experience and then nodded.

"Ok, ok you can show them."  
"Thank you. Now go and say goodbye to the Captain and then you can finally leave this madhouse." She took the autograph book back and put it into her pocket, taking a step back and re-joining the others as she slipped her hand into Ianto's.

"Well it's been interesting." Martha said to Jack.

"Oh, it's been fun. You know it has."

Martha leant forward and kissed him on the lips.

"Well everyone else has had a go." She laughed and Lucy shrugged. Everyone apart from her but that was ok. She never really went for 'pretty' boys like the Captain anyway - 51st century hormones aside.

"You can so come back anytime." Jack promised.

"Well maybe I will. One day." She gave him a small joking salute and Jack gave her a proper one in response. Martha smiled at all of them again before walking off.

"Brother?" Owen asked.

"Well yeah. I mean you might be a zombie but I'm a universal freak so I reckon I'm not too mad for adopting you. It's not like either one of us have got much of a family anyway."  
"Ok," Owen shrugged. "Looks like I've got a little sister. Can't imagine introducing you to the rest of the Harpers mind."

"That's ok. I mean you already gave Ianto the 'speech' when we started going out. So I reckon you've had the job for a while. Now if you could just medically clear me then we can all get on with your jobs and go home and then tomorrow we can all sit and watch a DVD"  
"I'll give you a check-up tomorrow. For now thought just presume that you can't get called in tonight unless the world is ending."  
"Great."

**A/N: So the only excuse I have for this being late is my internet is shit and I'm a terrible person. I'm also closer to reaching a point where I don't have an update ready than I thought, so I leave you with a choice.**

**THIS BIT IS IMPORTANT **

**I can put the first part of 'Sam' up and then potentially put the story on hiatus or I could put it on hiatus and then wait until I have finished writing that chapter with my mate and then put it all up. I'm not happy about having to put Lucy in a brief haitus but I think it's the best possible solution seeing as I'm in Australia and she's working in the UK which means times we can both be on skype (and that's not counting my unreliable internet) is limited.**

**Thanks and sorry.**

**As always please review, stay shiny and I hope you have a great week**

**Rea**


	46. Chapter 46 - Voyage of the Damned

"Come on." Lucy said impatiently as she pulled Ianto through the empty London streets.

"What are you looking for?" Ianto asked, a small amused smile on his face as his girlfriend was desperately looking for something and seemingly had a time limit.

"An empty street with a certain newspaper seller on it."

"Lucy, every street is empty. Everyone tried to get out of London this year, why did you insist that we bucked the trend and come in instead?"

"Because of that!" Lucy grinned as they turned another corner to see a group of people in the middle of the street talking. Ianto's attention was drawn to the one who was at least half of the height of the others and bright red with small spikes all over his body. As well as the woman who was jumping up and down in what appeared to be joy, the man next to her was wearing a long coat and Ianto recognised him from the CCTV he'd seen of Canary Wharf. He suddenly understood why Lucy had been so desperate to spend Christmas in London and was reminded that last year she had mentioned something about the Titantic.

"It should be full, it should be busy, something's wrong." The man – who could only be the Doctor said. "Where are all the people? Lucy!"

"Hi." Lucy said suddenly shy, she might have spoken to him on the phone but the Doctor was her hero and meeting someone in real life was different to simply speaking on the phone. Ianto rolled his eyes and gently tugged on her arm. "Um... hi Doctor, I'm Lucy. I know we spoke on the phone and Jack told me what I did in the year. But it's... well it's great to meet you."  
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." The Doctor said shaking her hand fervently. "You must be Ianto Jones." He shook Ianto's hand too. "Where are the people? No, hang on wait, meet my new friend. Astrid this is Lucy Smith and Ianto Jones they, well... they defend the planet."  
"It's nice to meet you." Astrid said. "I'm just a waitress."  
"Yeah but one from space."

"This is the first time I've stepped on an alien planet." Astrid admitted getting excited again. "It's a different sky."  
"We're grateful you decided to pick Earth as a holiday destination." Ianto said in a deadpan voice. "If you could please leave it as you found it and if you plan to try and take over the world can you fill in the request form and we'll let you know when Torchwood can fit you in, we regret to inform you that we are booked up until March."

"Oh April at least." Lucy interrupted.

"Until mid-April." He amended. "If you could patiently wait your turn we will deal with you as soon as possible."  
Astrid looked bemused but the Doctor beamed and shook Ianto's hand again.

"I think I'm going to like you Ianto Jones. Does that ever work?"

"It did once, if you ask Jack."

"Your planet is beautiful." Astrid gasped and the other three all looked at each other confused and then looked around the street again.

"Really?" The Doctor was the one to ask, he had known her longest, and invited her on this trip after all. "Do you think so? It's just a street."  
"Cardiff is nicer."

"You're biased Yan."

"The pyramids are beautiful, and New Zealand. But this is just an ordinary London street, although it is missing all the people. Lucy? Ianto? Fancy telling me why?"

Before Ianto could say anything Lucy grabbed Astrid's hand.

"He can answer, come on" She ran over to the newspaper stand where an old man was sitting wearing a knitted red hat and a sprig of mistletoe – Wilfred Mott. Ianto rolled his eyes and calmly walked after her with the Doctor.

"Hi." Lucy grinned at him, he had obviously been pretending to not notice the group of people appearing on the street. "My friend back there would like to know where everyone has gone."  
"You mean you don't know?" Wilf asked amazed.

"No. I know, but he's a bit of a hermit." Lucy said as Ianto and the Doctor joined them. "Likes getting together with friends – other hermits – every 10 years to talk about caves. Hermits reunited."  
"Hey!" The Doctor said. "I said that..."  
"I know, it's nice to be able to speak to someone who understands my references. Anyway?"  
"Well everyone's scared aren't they?" Wilf answered.

"Right, yes..." The Time Lord acted as though it was obvious. "Scared of what?"  
"Where have you been living?" Wilf joked, "In a cave like she said? London, at Christmas. Not safe, is it?"

"Cardiff is a lot better." Ianto agreed. "But someone wanted to spend Christmas in London this year..." He mock glared at Lucy who just smiled innocently at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Why?"

"Well, it's them, up above. Tch." Wilf tutted before explaining further. "Look, Christmas before last we had that big bloody spaceship."  
"That affected the whole world though." Lucy pointed out.

"But the centre of the spaceship was above London though." Ianto said. "I was still working at 2 when... I wasn't part of that department of course but we all knew."  
"_You_ didn't do it though. Survivors guilt is one thing, feeling guilty for what a completely different department did while you worked for the company is something else." Lucy insisted, this wasn't the first time they had had this conversation and she was pretty certain it wouldn't be the last. "Sorry, sir, please carry on."  
"Well last year there was the Christmas star electrocuting all over the place. Draining the Thames."

Lucy glanced over at the Doctor and he had the good sense to look slightly embarrassed at that last comment.

"This place is amazing." Astrid breathed.

"This year... gawd knows what so everybody's scarped. Gone to the county. All except me, and her Majesty." He stood and saluted the TV screen which was showing the story that he had been telling them as well as the Queen telling everyone that they would be staying in London for the Christmas period. "God bless her. We stand vigil."

"Well, between you and me, I think her Majesty's got it right. As far as I know, this year, nothing to worry about." It literally as he finished speaking that the teleports he and Astrid had been wearing activated.

"Then again..." Wilf sounded worried. "You two are still here though."  
"Oh we're actually staying in London." Lucy explained. "Anyway, it was nice to meet you sir. And hey, it's a story for the grandchildren, being reassured by a disappearing man that nothing is going to happen."

"Oh, I think my granddaughter's a bit too old for those kinds of stories."  
"You never know." Lucy persisted. "She might surprise you. Goodnight Wilfred Mott, it was honestly a pleasure and an honour to meet you." With that she turned and left, Ianto rolled his eyes at her but followed, neither of them responding when he called after them as he realised that he had never given his name.

"So how do you know him then?"  
"His granddaughter is Donna Noble, one of _the_ most important women in the multiverse." Lucy explained. "Thank you, by the way."  
"For what?"  
"For letting me drag you to spend Christmas in England and then dragging you out late on Christmas Eve all for five minutes with the Doctor. And I didn't actually tell you about the Doctor bit... oops."  
"It's a good thing I love you." Ianto joked swinging his arm around hers. "Now, you obviously can't/won't tell me what's going to happen. But just answer this, am I going to be filling out a form for overtime?"  
"Nope, the Doctor's got this don't worry. Besides, if it fails we'll be dead and you won't have to worry."  
"You fill me with so much confidence in the future. Now, back to the hotel to enjoy what's left of Christmas Eve?"  
"Definitely." She nodded.

**A/N: So I have started writing a chapter where they watch Doctor Who but I haven't finished it yet, you'll hopefully get that next week and then Lucy will probably have to go on hiatus for two weeks so I can finish writing the chapter with my mate.**

**Have a good week and stay shiny**

**Rea**


	47. Chapter 47 - Watching Doctor Who

**A/N: *waves a white flag and slides the next chapter along the floor as a show of good faith* DON'T SHOOT. I've got a longer AN at the end with explanations. But for now, enjoy.**

Chapter 30.5 - Watching Doctor Who

It took a while for them to be able to find the time to all sit round the conference room and watch a DVD. Not that they hadn't wanted to ever since Martha had given them permission to watch that one disk but mostly because things got in the way; incidents with UNIT, planning for Gwen's wedding, and other general day to day problems in the running of a top secret organisation made for defending the planet or more specifically the 'Great British Empire'. Not that any of them particularly cared about the British Empire and Ianto ad Gwen would both tell people that they only really cared that Wales was safe; England could become the next Atlantis and they wouldn't lift a finger to stop it.

Eventually they decided that instead of continually putting it off they were all going to sit down and watch it after Christmas. (providing that the world hadn't ended, Jack had tried calling them in when the Titanic appeared in the sky but Lucy pointed out the Doctor was already on board fixing it and there was nothing they could do if he failed. Ianto backed her up by saying that they had personally met the Doctor but also pointed out that if the Doctor did fail they would need to get replacements for Lucy and Ianto as they were in London and would be killed by the blast. Lucy enjoyed saying 'I told you so' when the Titantic only just missed hitting Buckingham Palace. She also went looking for Mr Copper and made sure that he had what was needed to set himself up in his new life as well as kid's books explaining how things really were and not the Chinese whispers versions that he taught the tourists.) They'd been back at work two weeks since the new year and were finally caught up enough on paper work that they migrated to the conference room and Lucy had gone down to her safe to get her DVD.

"Doctor Who; series 3, disk 3" The automated women's voice came through the speakers as the familiar logo spun onto the screen "For audio navigation press enter now".

"Ready?" Lucy asked as she got as comfy as possible in the chair remote control in hand. Honestly why couldn't they watch this downstairs where they had a sofa or even in the recovery rooms that she hadn't known about but had used when she had been shot? Those rooms were comfy and had a TV screen in, they could just have hooked the laptop up and watched it that way. But Jack had decided that the conference room was the best place to watch it and Lucy had the sense not to argue with him over it, the fact that they were watching Doctor Who was a big deal to everyone but even more to him. She had gone down to her safe the second she had got in and had received the DVD that Martha had given them permission to watch, idly she had thought that she should have asked the same from the Doctor but she had been distracted when she had spoken to him. And these episodes were 'Doctor-lite' anyway, at least Blink was and technically it wasn't the Doctor in the majority of Human Nature/Family of Blood. She decided not to think about it too much, these episodes were about as safe as it could get to show the rest of the team and she was looking forward to it. Not only were they safe, but these were considered among the best. Love and Monsters was also safe, but there was no way she was going to show that one to the team.

The rest of the team obviously were obviously looking forward to it as well from the way that they just stared at her when she asked if they were ready. Jack looked as though all his Christmas' were coming early, Tosh had a notebook in front of her ready to jot down any notes that might be needed, Gwen looked excited to find out what the ex-'number one' enemy of Torchwood was like whilst Owen was trying to act as though it wasn't important and he had better things to do. Which wasn't fooling anybody he had got into work at the same time as Ianto and Lucy that morning grumbling about how he could finally find out what all the fuss was about. Lucy knew that Ianto was excited for this as well but he was the only one to keep it hidden behind his day-to-day mask. The night before he had been asking all sorts of questions and mentioning rumours from Torchwood 2 and things he had seen in the archives, wanting to know if they were true or not.

Once she was sure that everyone was comfy, the lights were all turned off, the only things that was going to interrupt them was a rift alert or some other alien event that couldn't be held off for a couple of hours, and she knew that she couldn't pull the suspense out for any longer Lucy pressed play on the laptop and leaned back into her seat, watching the Doctor and Martha run into the TARDIS with something shooting at them.  
Everyone looked at Jack when the Doctor said that whatever had been shooting at them had stolen a Time Agent's wriststrap.  
"Well it wasn't me."He said defensively  
"How do you know?" Lucy asked teasingly.  
"Because I would die before I lost this..." he paused and remembered that John Hart had stolen it "...again."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What the hell is going on?"  
"Just watch and find out." Lucy smirked as the others were all confused at the sudden and abrupt change in scene to 1913, Martha being a housemaid and the Doctor claiming to be human. The opening credits rolled through the vortex.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"You said the Doctor has two hearts." Gwen said as Nurse Refern – Joan – used a stethoscope and only heard one beating.  
"He does." Jack was confused and didn't like it, he especially didn't like that Lucy knew more about it that him  
"So how come she only heard one? Or is she just a bad nurse?"  
"Nah, no one's that bad." Owen added, "even kids just playing with the stuff can hear hearts beating."  
"You know you'd understand more about what was going on if you watched the episode and didn't talk over it." Lucy snapped slightly. "If you acted like this when..."  
"That's a Dalek!" Jack interrupted when he saw the drawing on the page  
"And there was also gasmask zombies and a sonic screwdriver. In a bit they'll be some faces and you might recognise one of them, and clockwork driods and cybermen. Now can we please just shut up and watch?" Of course it was at that point that Rose was brought up and Lucy saw Jack's face fall. "She's safe remember." She said, breaking her own rule, "living in a parallel world with Mickey the idiot, her mum and dad and a new baby brother. And the Doctor will probably kill me for telling you this but you'll see her again."  
"Really?"  
"Yes. _Now_ can we watch the episode?"  
"Some of us _are_ trying to watch it." Ianto said dryly, "Joan fancies that man and is busy trying to remind Martha of her place."  
"Why do you say that man, he's the Doctor."  
"I'm not sure he is." Ianto said simply ad she could see that Gwen was about to try and point out the obvious. Or at least what she thought was obvious.  
"Shut up!" Lucy growled, before it could become too much of an argument "You all wanted to watch some Doctor Who and I am showing you three of the very best episodes ever. So watch the damn episodes. Now Lattimer being good at guessing is important."  
"Whose Lattimer?" Jack asked with a stage whisper.  
"The geeky kid." Owen replied.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"A green light? Really?" Owen snorted in disbelief  
"Yes a green light because TV doesn't have the ability to show everything perfectly and sometimes shorthand is best."  
"How can he think it's an aeroplane?" Tosh asked breaking her silence for the first time since they start watching.  
"Because he's an idiot." Gwen replied  
"One thing we agree on."  
"But really, what kind of plane looks like that? And the ship is invisible, does he really think that there could be an invisible plane?"  
"Gwen got it right, Baines is an idiot, an idiot from 1913 who has clue about even the possibility of aliens or anything that that's remotely 'sci-fi'. Plus he's an arse."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"That's the TARDIS?" Gwen asked and Lucy and Jack both smiled thinking of the adventures and memories they had attached to a little blue box, a magic doorway into the universe. Lucy might have not travelled in it the same way Jack had done but that didn't mean that it wasn't her safety net. Gwen sounded slightly surprised that it looked so ordinary, even though they had both told her that it took that form and she had been shown the CCTV of the TARDIS appearing and disappearing. When the doors opened and it looked dead she looked like she was going to say something else but decided against offending her boss, she might not care about saying something to annoy Lucy but there were lines with Jack that even she knew not to cross. And insulting the Doctor or the TARDIS was one of them.  
"Greatest ship in the universe." Lucy said with a smile, "now shush, this will answer all your questions."  
To her surprise there was no more interruptions although Jack hissed when he heard the Doctor say what the plan was to escape these things and why the man he recognised now only had one heart. It also made Owen sit up in interest at the idea of the ability to be able to change your species, put your consciousness into an inanimate object and become a different person.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"When did he have the time to record that?" Tosh asked as Martha watched the Doctor give Martha a list of instructions.  
"Honestly I don't know." Lucy replied, "maybe you should ask him?" She added sarcastically before remembering that she actually could do so. "Or Martha! I can ask Martha to fill in minor plot points that always bugged me. I'll call her tonight."  
_"And Thank You." _The Doctor grinned and Lucy felt her heart melt at the sight. Ianto rolled his eyes when he saw and she smiled at him feebly and squeezed his hand. The Doctor might no longer be fictional and she might still have a bit of a crush on him (and so did Tosh and Gwen after they saw that smile) but that was all it was.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

There wasn't much talking for the next half hour until the end of the episode, although that didn't mean that didn't mean that it didn't stop completely. Jack wasn't sure what to think or say as he saw the Not-Doctor (they had taken to calling him) and Joan start to fall for each other and the sight of the Doctor allowing the boys to train with guns jarred with him as It was such an anti-Doctor thing to do. It reinforced that John Smith was a man from 1913 and not the Doctor. That didn't mean he wasn't a good man because John Smith clearly was, but he was part of that time and that meant training boys to use weapons to protect the colonies.  
Saving the baby by throwing the cricket ball was a very Doctor thing to do though and it gave Jack hope while surprising the rest of them, the Time Lord he knew was in there somewhere. Lucy didn't want to point out that of course things worked out ok, this was while Martha was travelling with him and it was before they had met up again. Plus it was a TV show, but as Lucy had discovered and been reminded of many times. This wasn't just a TV show here, this had happened and although Jack logically knew that the Doctor and Martha would survive this he didn't know about any of the others, and seeing images of your friends in danger was never easy.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Why did she think slapping him would help?" Ianto asked as Martha tried to force the Doctor back to normality.  
"No clue."  
"He'd changed his entire biology and she thought that she could change him back with a slap?" Owen scoffed. "Maybe she's not as smart as I thought."  
"She was panicking." Jack pointed out defending his friend.  
"Yeah but."  
"I didn't say it was smart but she was panicking."  
"And now she's lost her job."  
"Slapping your boss will cause that. Although I think we've all slapped Jack a least once. Owen even shot him" Lucy said with a shrug.  
"Errr, I did actually lose my job over that."  
"And yet you're still here." Tosh pointed out, they had all become comfortable enough with Owen being dead to bring it up in conversation or to joke about.  
"Jack didn't even let death break my contract, I doubt a small thing like killing him would make the difference."  
"Fair play."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They watched as Martha slipped into the dance hall and spoke to Joan about how Mr Smith was different and then tried to change him back through using the sonic screwdriver. (Something they all agreed was unlikely to work but was definitely a better idea than slapping him)  
When the Family of Blood walked into the dance and killed the veteran the tone changed, only Lucy was aware that the episode was drawing to an end and was trying to decide if she should just skip the 'next week' trailer and move on to the episode or pause it and ask Ianto to make more coffee. It appeared it was only her and Ianto who had actually finished their coffee as the others had been too distracted to remember it was there.  
Not that Ianto hadn't been concentrating on the episode but there were very few things that could distract him from coffee, and a TV show – no matter how good it was – was not one of them. At least not yet, Lucy still had hopes that 'Blink' would manage it. And the realisation that Weeping Angels were real was a petrifying one. She would be going to find those four that the Doctor had tricked and encase them in concrete at the earliest possible moment. And maybe slip a mirror into the hands of every weeping angel she ever saw – just in case.  
_"We asked for silence!" _Baines shouted while the Scarecrow stood ominously behind him. _"We have a few questions for Mr Smith."  
"No, better than that. The teacher, he's the Doctor. I heard them talking." _The little girl – Daughter of Mine – said, as she half skipped over to join her Family.  
_"You took human form."  
"Of course I'm human, I was born human, as were you, Baines! And Jenny, and you Mr Clark, what is going on? This is madness!"  
"Oh and a human brain, too. Simple, thick and dull."  
_Lucy slowly picked up the remote ready to pause it the second it ended, there was no need to watch the trailer as they would be able to jump straight to the next episode. She didn't think anyone noticed her as they were too ensconced with watching the screen but with Torchwood Agents you could never be completely certain of anything.  
_"He's no good like this."  
"We need a Time Lord."  
"Easily done." _He pointed the gun at Mr Smith. "_Change back."  
"I don't know what you're talking about."  
"CHANGE BACK!"  
"I literally do not know..." _Mother of Mine grabbed Martha and pointed her gun at the companion's head. Not that Martha was a willing captive, she fought back.  
"_She's your friend isn't she? Doesn't this scare you enough to change back?"  
"I don't know what you mean."  
"Wait a minute, the maid said something about Smith and matron. That women there"  
"Then let's have you."  
_Joan didn't fight back, unlike Martha who was still struggling to get out of the hold she was in.  
_"Have you enjoyed it Doctor? Being human? Has it taught you wonderful things? Are you better, richer, wiser? Then lets see you answer this. Which one of them do you want us to kill? Maid or Matron? Your lover or your friend? Your choice."_

The theme music started and Lucy pressed paused on the image of John Smith's distraught face.  
"What did you do that for?" Gwen asked.  
"End of the episode." Lucy replied, "Figured we didn't need to see the trailer for next week and I wanted to ask Ianto for more coffee."  
"So we have to wait to find out what happened?" Owen complained, "great first it's all... I can't tell you anything. Then we're finally allowed to watch and learn more about 'the great doctor' and now we have to wait to find out how Martha got out of that?"  
"Careful Owen, you're starting to sound like you care." Tosh teased  
"I don't care I just... I just want to know. I don't like cliffhangers like that, we get enough surprises in our job."  
"Well I had to wait a week. You can survive 10 minutes. Ianto?"  
Ianto rolled his eyes but stood up and picked up Lucy's mug.  
"Anyone else seeing as I'm going to be making a batch anyway?" Everyone apart from Owen quickly passed their mugs over and Ianto left to change the by-now cold coffee to a something that you could actually drink.

"So?" Lucy asked as they waited for Ianto to come back and she used the remote to jump to the next episode not giving them a chance to even see a screen shot of the trailer. It would be much more fun if they didn't know what was going to happen. Not watching the trailers had been something she had tried to do when she was younger, staying away from spoilers completely was a noble goal but in reality it just wasn't feasible. And besides Owen was right, after an episode like that you would take as much of a sneak preview as possible and the BBC had made them to wet the appetite but not give anything plot related away.  
"It's good." Gwen said as it became clear that none of the others were going to say anything, Owen was too busy sulking whilst Jack was trying to work out what was going to happen. Tosh just gave Lucy a 'look' and a small smile, which Lucy correctly, took to mean she had enjoyed it and was looking forward to watching the next one but didn't feel the need to say anything about it. Not right now anyway, although the pair of them would probably sit down and discuss it at some point. Since the 'fiasco' between Lucy and Ianto when Jack had returned and Lucy had spent those couple of months staying with Tosh the pair of them had got a lot better at silent communication. It definitely helped that Tosh was aware of Lucy's nightmares even though she never said anything about it. If Tosh always made sure that Lucy had an extra big mug of coffee for when she was sitting at the table looking dead on her feet, that a plate of toast would suddenly appear next to her or that the freezer suddenly always seemed to hold Lucy's favourite ice cream then neither of them mentioned it.  
"Only good? So you won't mind going to do your weapons training while the rest of us watch part two then?" Lucy smirked and Gwen rolled her eyes, this time she was determined not to rise to the bait. The fact that she had only said good because she knew that Lucy would probably rise to it was irrelevant.  
"You know what I meant."  
"Yeah, doesn't mean that I don't think you're wrong. If you only think that this episode is good then and you only want to watch the next episode to find out what happens then I despair of you. This is one of the best stories/episodes over the whole 40 odd years that the show existed. Only really beaten by Blink and a couple of classics."  
"I was just expecting something 'more'. I mean you talk about the Doctor being this amazing person and I'm watching an episode about a human called John Smith."  
"Yeah and I also told you that you could watch these episodes because they are 'Doctor-lite' and therefore there aren't any spoilers or anything you should know about. Besides we get a most epic speech in the next episode that sums the Doctor up amazingly. He's like fire and ice Gwen and trust me by the end of part 2, you'll be agreeing with me."  
"The day Gwen agrees with you is the day I go sober." Owen snarked  
"I think you'll find that you're already sober, Owen. You're dead. Besides we agree on a couple of things."  
"Like what?"  
"Mostly that your a twat and Tosh is amazing" Gwen pointed out.  
"Rhys is out of her league by miles same as Ianto is out of mine. Torchwood is both insane and brilliant. Cybermen are fucking scary."  
"Ianto's coffee is a drug we're happily addicted to and yours tastes like it's the mud that even pigs refused to roll in."  
"Ok, ok." Jack laughed raising his hands in surrender. "Please never do that again, it's scary. It's like a rule of physics is broken, the two of you agreeing on things."  
"No problem." They both replied together, and Tosh couldn't help but laugh at the horror on both of their faces at the fact they were so in sync as well as Jack's and Owen's.

"I'm sure I missed something while I was gone. But I'm not sure I want to know." Ianto said as he pushed the door open with a tray of new mugs of coffee carefully balanced so that it wouldn't be knocked over as he jostled to get the door handle.  
"Lucy and Gwen were not only agreeing they accidentally spoke together and finished each other's sentences." Tosh explained as the tray went down on the table and they all grabbed their respective mugs.  
"I was right, I didn't want to know." Ianto gave a mock shudder while he sat down and Lucy laughed as she got comfortable leaning against him again, one arm wrapped around her while the other was balancing his coffee mug on his spare leg. It was awkward to do in the conference room but by Lucy curling up on her office chair they managed to find a way that worked for them. Normally they wouldn't dare be quite so casual at work, they were both professional people and did their best to not let their personal relationship affect their working one too much which meant they kept their physicalness down to a quick kiss as they separated and got on with their own day. Or Lucy thanking Ianto when he appeared without warning with a mug of steaming coffee as a way of breaking up days of endless paperwork and shooting drills. However as they were spending the morning watching a DVD neither of them thought too much of it. When the disk was over and they had all inevitably finished discussing it at length (as well as the nature of time as a ball of timey-wimey stuff) they would go back to normal but for now they could afford to relax a bit more.  
"Comfy?" Ianto asked and Lucy nodded and grabbed the remote to press play and start the next episode, quickly skipping through the episode recap until the opening credits started again.

"_Oh the maid is full of fire."  
"_You know even if I hadn't met Martha I think I would be slightly in love with her." Owen muttered and Lucy laughed.  
"She's considered the weakest of all of the modern day companions, or at least she was when I left. But that's because everyone loved the Special Snowflake and she had some really weak episodes."  
"The Doctor wouldn't take anyone with him who wasn't brilliant." Jack argued.  
"_Scared and holding a gun, do you want to risk it?"  
"_Oh I know that. I love Martha, I loved her while it she was still just a character. Shakespeare loved her too, wrote a sonnet for her."  
"Are you going to keep talking about how brilliant Martha is or can we watch and find out?" Tosh asked and Lucy gave her a weak grin.  
"Sorry. But Owen started it."  
"Oh blame the dead guy."  
"I do, constantly"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"That music for Sister of Mine is creepy." Gwen commented and Tosh glared at her hard enough that no one replied to Gwen's comment although they agreed with her. Lucy couldn't help but smirk at the fact in the time taken to watch just over one episode of Doctor Who she had managed to turn the Japanese woman into a fangirl. She wished she could show Tosh more than just three episodes but consoled herself with the fact that at least she was showing her three of the best.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"He has a green laser gun." Owen said sarcastically leaning back into his chair. "These guys really like the stereotypes don't they?"  
"Sometimes shorthand is best."  
"And stereotypes exist for a reason." Jack added. "I've lost count of things that should belong in bad science fiction that I've seen in real life."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Scarecrows?"  
_"War comes to England, a year in advance."  
"_Listen, scarecrows are creepy." Lucy said defending her legitimate fear of these things. "You try stopping one as they come towards you intent on ripping you apart when doing the same to them won't even slow them down."  
"You could rip their legs off?" Gwen offered.  
"Oh you think we could get close enough do you? Besides it's a mute point anyway cause I doubt we'll ever meet them. It's the next episode that will freak you out and impact how you act towards normal everyday things for the rest of your life."  
"Let's watch this one first before talking about the next one." Ianto said quickly before Tosh could say anything. Lucy nodded and vowed to not say anything else, unless she had to correct someone again.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"_Well that's definitely impossible. Women might train to be doctors but definitely not skivvys and not one of your colour."  
_"If looks could kill."Tosh said as Martha stopped looking for the watch and turned to glare at Joan for the comment on her colour making an impact her ability as a doctor. Something that the woman prided herself on.  
"People really thought that." Jack pointed out. "I lived through it."  
"I know and it's not like Joan isn't educated but still..."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The team stayed quiet again until Joan took the Not-Doctor and Martha to the Cartwright House, a safe place away from the school. They had watched the children go to war against scarecrows and the impact it had made on them, the horror on their faces. It was something that although they didn't want to think about it they could all relate to it, to the emotions when they had first used a gun in the field and the difference between being on the shooting range to reality. No matter how much they tried to deny the horror and the nightmares they all had them, those moments where the downsides to Torchwood was to heavy and hard to carry and they all wished that Jack hadn't gone anywhere near them and had allowed them to continue living in ignorance. Even Jack had them, moments of doubt where he wished that he had never met the Doctor.  
_"Because he's lonely."  
"And that's what you want me to become?"  
"_That man can really act." Ianto said approvingly as Martha opened the door to Lattimer  
"Yeah David Tennant is damn amazing."  
_"Then because I was so scared of the Doctor."  
"_And this guy is your hero?" Gwen asked forgetting for a minute that Jack loved the Time Lord as well and had travelled with him. "Someone who scares a kid?"  
"Shut up." Lucy said hitting pause and rewinding a couple of seconds to the beginning of Tim's speech. "This speech is amazing and sums up the Doctor perfectly."  
_"He's like fire and ice and rage. ("Stop it)  
He's like the night and the storm at the heart of the sun.  
He's ancient and forever.  
He burns at the centre of time, and he can see the turn of the universe. ("Stop it, I said stop it.")  
And he's wonderful."  
_"Were you mouthing along?" Owen asked.  
"No?" Lucy replied awkwardly.  
"Sums him up well." Jack said. "But more emphasis on the wonderful part. He's not human and sometimes it's easy to forget that, he sees the universe in a completely different way to us."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What the hell is he doing?" Jack asked accusingly, it was the first time he had broken the silence while watching the episode. John Smith was walking into the Family's Spaceship and stumbling around hitting different buttons and Jack was not impressed with the human.  
_"You can have him."  
_Lucy hid her grin as her team made sounds of protest against what they were seeing, it didn't matter that they knew that the world hadn't ended in 1913, Lucy wasn't entirely sure that they had remembered that this had already happened to the Doctor and Martha and they were both alive.  
"Don't give them the watch!" Owen groaned  
_"He didn't just make himself human he made himself stupid."  
"_He's a coward. Who gives the enemy what they want to save their own skin?"

They watched as John Smith turned into the Doctor before their eyes in one simple motion, grabbing the watch as Baines threw it away.  
"_Oh I think the explanation might be that you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection. A little bit like ventriloquism of the nose".  
_Torchwood didn't quite cheer when they realised that he now a Time Lord again but it was a close thing. They all grinned and made a small sound before realising what they were doing and quickly drinking their coffee instead. Lucy decided not to mention it because she knew that Owen would bring up the fact she had mouthed along with Tim as he described the Doctor and after Blink Ianto would realise why she had three different t-shirts that claimed the 'Angels have the Phone Box'. Besides she could hardly hold it against them, the first time she had watched this episode she had been equally happy, and that was when it was just a TV show. Not a part of history with one of their friends in a starring role.

"_Run." _The Doctor grinned as he gave them their one and only warning, turning around and starting to run himself._  
_"He looks insane." Owen commented and Lucy just nodded.  
"All the best people are."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"_He never raised his voice, that was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why, why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.  
He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains forged in the heart of a dwarf star.  
He tricked my mother into falling into the event horizon of a galaxy to be imprisoned there, forever.  
He still visits my sister, once a year, every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is, can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror. Inside every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her.  
As for me, I was suspended in time and the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England as their protector.  
We wanted to live forever. So the Doctor made sure that we did."_

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Well that was intense" Ianto said as they watched the TARDIS leave Tim stranded in a field. "Good but intense."  
"There's just a small extra bit." Lucy replied as she leant forward and grabbed the remote ready to jump to the next episode again. They watched the coda about WWII and saw that Lattimer's belief that he and the other boy would be safe because they would fight together in the trenches was correct.  
"That coda was nice." Tosh said as Lucy skipped the trailer for the next week but let the credits roll. "Not needed but nice."  
"Yeah. So Gwen, what do you think of the Doctor now?"  
"I can see why you and Jack love him" Gwen said diplomatically. Lucy rolled her eyes and decided not to push it, she didn't need an argument right now. Plus there was a small self-centred part of her that thought that Gwen was determined to not enjoy Doctor Who because it was Lucy's favourite show and because this was what gave Lucy and advantage in Torchwood. Not that she would ever say that out loud, Doctor Who wasn't everyone's cup of tea after all but for someone who worked in Torchwood and with aliens it was weird that Gwen wasn't more into it.

It was in the first couple of seconds of 'Blink' that the alarms went off on Jack's wriststrap and Tosh's PDA. Lucy wasn't the only one who groaned as Tosh checked what was happening and Ianto pressed pause.  
"Weevils. Show and tell is over kids, time to get to work." Jack joked as he stood up, they all followed and slid easily back into work-mode. Ianto going with Tosh over to her desk to help from inside the hub whilst Lucy, Gwen, Owen and Jack grabbed their jackets and weevil spray ready to go out into the field. Weevils hunts had become a lot easier since Owen had died, as his returning came back with the title of 'King of the Weevils' and although they never named him as such he was effectively their sheepdog, herding the weevils towards them where they could spray them, knock them out and tag them if they weren't already.

As they got into the SUV Owen grumbled about how he had to go out on every damn weevil hunt, even if it was on a night where he wasn't on call.  
"I just get used and abused. Everyone else gets to keep their nights off."  
"Everyone else needs to sleep." Jack countered as he drove towards where the weevils had left the sewers  
"I just think that this is... actually what would it be called it's not sexist or racist? But it's definitely because of something about me that I had no say over."  
"Livingist?" Lucy offered "Deadist? Part of the Anti-Zombie League? I'm proud to say that my card came in the post a couple of days ago. We're the first line of defence when zombies take over the world"  
"Seriously?" Owen wanted to think she was joking, but you could never be quite sure with Lucy. Jack and Gwen decided to stay out of the conversation as Gwen quietly gave Jack directions to the Retail Park where the weevils had decided to surface. Lucy pulled her wallet out of her jacket pocket and threw it at Owen, he opened it and was only half surprised to see that there was indeed a card in it that claimed she was a member of the 'Anti-Zombie League'. He scoffed and threw the wallet back at her but not before pulling out £10 and pocketing it.  
"Hey!"  
"Compensation." He retorted  
"Are you two ever going to grow up?" Jack asked from the driving seat.  
"Probably not."  
"I'm not planning on it, besides I'm only 24."  
"And you turn 25 in a couple of months."  
"Exactly, so why should I be grown up? Jack I'm guessing we're getting closer if the amount of cars speeding past us in the other direction is any indication."  
"Next left Jack and then the first exit on the roundabout and we're there."Gwen agreed  
"Tosh, are any of these already tagged or all they all new?"  
_"You've got a couple that are tagged but from what I can see on the CCTV there's at least 5 of them."_ Tosh replied over the earpieces.  
"Five?"  
"_At least."  
"_I suppose at least we've got 'Blink' waiting for us when we get back."  
"_I think you'll find_ y_ou've got paperwork waiting when you get back." _Ianto contradicted.  
"Can't we watch Doctor Who first and do the paperwork after?" Lucy jokingly pleaded although she knew that the episode would have to wait.  
"Let's have this discussion after we've finished here." Jack said turning off at the roundabout into the retail park, they could hear screams from the people who were unable to escape. Some were in their cars and others were inside the shops.  
"Tosh?"  
"_Yeah."  
"_You know you said there were at least 5."  
"_How many are there?"  
_"Closer to 10."  
"Right, Owen you need to get out first and make sure that the weevils leave those cars alone and let the people out. Lucy, you and Gwen go over to the Homebase and stop those idiots from using the rakes and stuff they seem to have picked up. We don't need any more deaths. Once Owen has them under control we'll start the sedating and tagging." They could see the bodies of a couple of people on the ground who hadn't quite been able to get to safety in time. Owen rolled his eyes and jumped out of the SUV, the reaction was immediate from the weevils, shying away from Owen instead of trying to get into the cars.

"For god's sake drive." Owen shouted at the people who were frozen in shock and horror at what was happening around them. It took another 30 seconds or so for the father to remember how to drive, he kept looking back at the kids in the back seat and the weevils that were suddenly trying to get away from them rather than open up the car. But he quickly put the car into gear and sped away.  
"Help me keep them away from the girls." Jack said gesturing to Owen as he pulled a new 'gizmo' out of the SUV. "This thing had better be ready Owen."  
"It is. Probably."  
"Probably?"  
"I haven't had time to test it on Janet yet. I only finished it last night."  
_"According to the simulations I've run it should work." _Tosh reassured them.  
"Should is not that much better than probably. Right, let's do it."

"What the hell do you think your doing?" Lucy asked as the door to Homebase was opened to let her and Gwen in, she pulled one of the rakes out of the hands of a middle aged man. He fought her for a few seconds but quickly gave up as Gwen was doing the same thing and the crowd noticed the guns on their hips.  
"We've got to fight back." The man tried to defend himself, Lucy rolled her eyes at the weak excuse.  
"No you've got to stay out of the way while we do our job."  
"Are you Torchwood?" A young girl asked, she had been hiding at the back behind a women who looked scared and tried to pull her daughter back.  
"Sure we are sweetie." Gwen said crouching down to her height. "are you scared?" The girl shook her head, trying to be brave.  
"I was worried my Dad was going to get hurt trying to get us out of here, but I know you won't let him now."  
The man that Lucy had pulled the rake from looked ashamed and picked up his little girl who leaned into the hug.  
"Anyone else think we're going to let any of you out of here on a suicide mission?" Lucy asked and the few people who were still holding makeshift weapons quickly dropped them. "Good, now I suggest you all go to the café and get yourself some cake and a tea and we'll come and let you know when it's safe to leave."  
No body moved and Gwen was now waiting impatiently by the door wanting to leave again and join Jack and Owen outside.  
"That wasn't a suggestion, move." It appeared an angry Welsh woman did the job and the group of about 20 people started to move towards the cafe that was at the side of the large shop. "Back to work?" She asked Lucy who nodded, "You get the door and I'll have your back. It looks like Jack brought Owen's new gizmo."  
"Well if it works it'll make our job easier." Lucy pointed out as she held the door. "Ready?" Gwen nodded. "On three then, 1... 2... 3" She opened the door and Gwen ran out, Lucy covered her back and then followed after her trusting Gwen to keep her protected.

"Owen." Gwen called. "Some time soon would be good."  
"I'm trying it's jammed."  
"What do you mean 'it's jammed'?"  
"I mean it's jammed and the signal isn't getting through." Owen replied. "What do you think I mean?" He was busy hitting the 'on' button repeatedly as though that would make a difference.  
"Well I was hoping it meant that you were joking with us and that we didn't have to deal with 10 weevils." Lucy only half joked back as her and Gwen started towards the nearest weevil who was still cowering from Owen but looked angry that they were there. From past experience they knew that there was only so much the weevils would be calm and easier to catch in Owen's presence and that they would still try and fight back. The two of them were a well worn machine though and with Lucy coming up from behind and Gwen using the weevil spray from in front they were able to get the first one down with little difficulty.  
"1 down, 8 more to go." Lucy called out.  
"I've got another one down over here." Jack added  
"So just another 7 then." Gwen said with a fake cheeriness, "nothing like a gentle work out on a Sunday afternoon."  
"Owen stop trying with that thing and come and help us." Jack ordered.  
"I know I can make it work."  
"Well sooner rather than later would be nice. I would like to get back and watch Blink sometime today."  
"Ah-ha." Owen crowed in delight as he finally got the gizmo working having played with some of the wires, the back was completely open to the elements but it had done what he promised. It mirrored the effects of the rift when it was at it's most flux, mixed with a piercing sound that the weevils could hear and humans couldn't. This combination made the weevils completely defenceless especially when combined with the effects of being around the King of the Weevils – Owen – and made it easy to sedate them and inject a tracker in the ones that they hadn't seen before.  
"Better late than never." Jack joked as he pulled one of the weevils across.  
"Hey it worked didn't it." Owen shrugged.  
"If I didn't know you better I'd swear you'd done that for dramatic effect." Lucy moaned as she got the retcon out of the glove box of the car.  
"I'm going to drug the ones who couldn't escape."  
_"We've just started leaking a cover story about teenagers on drugs and masks. Placing a couple of witnesses, that kind of thing. It won't be perfect but it'll do the job."  
"I'll go visit the university tomorrow as an official to look for the suspects." _Ianto added, "_Give the story a bit more weight as a drug induced prank that got out of hand."  
"_And our dead bodies?"  
"They might just have to be cold cases. Tosh can you see if we've got any matching ones in the morgue that look like they were attacked with a knife or a gun rather than claws and teeth. I'm sending you photos of the suspects now."  
"_No problem" _Tosh confirmed.

Just over an hour later, once the remaining victims were all retconned, the weevils were dropped in different sewers, the team were able to breathe a sigh of relief.  
"Any idea what's making the weevils more active?" Lucy asked as she collapsed into her seat in the SUV. "They've never really been in such big groups before."_  
"_I'll look into it." Owen promised.  
"I'm ready to go to bed." Gwen muttered and Lucy couldn't help but agree with her.  
"You mean you don't want to leave the paperwork for tomorrow and watch what Lucy calls the best episode of Doctor Who?" Jack asked as he started the SUV up and began to drive back to the Plass and the base.  
_"I've ordered everyone's usual pizza."  
"_Sounds perfect. And then bed?" Lucy asked and Jack laughed.  
"Yes and then you two girls can leave early and go back to bed."  
"Well excuse us for not being the King of the Weevils or immortal and finding 9 weevils and the consequences difficult to... difficult to deal with. I can deal with one or two but nine is a lot." It would have been more impressive and more sarcastic if Lucy hadn't yawned halfway through it, although she did feel it emphasised her point quite well. What she didn't add was that she'd woken up screaming last night, something that Ianto had said he was proud of. Not that she had had yet another nightmare but that she felt comfortable enough to actually scream instead of staying silent.  
"Pizza and a DVD sounds great, thanks Ianto." Gwen added.  
_"No problem, they should get here around the same time as you." _Ianto confirmed.  
"I'll get a head start on that leg work tonight. "Lucy sighed, as much as she wanted to ignore the paperwork and forms that went with the job she was aware of how much easier everything was if they were actually done, especially since she had taken on a large proportion of Jack's work when he left to join the Doctor. "Start chasing up the people who managed to leave and decided to spread things on social media. Honestly this job had to have been easier when computers were nowhere near as advanced, granted it would make Tosh's life more difficult but you wouldn't have to worry about people telling the world about the aliens that live in Cardiff's sewers in 140 characters or less."  
"Lack of technology brought about it's own problems. There was one time..."  
"Yeah I don't actually want to hear any stories about the good old days." Owen interrupted. "It'll almost certainly end with you getting laid."  
"Well now that you mention it..."  
"All I meant was you could just pass it off as people being drunk and seeing things and they only had a limited amount of people they could tell, now it's out there for the whole world to see along with pictures of what people have had for dinner. Honestly I'm surprised we've not seen #Torchwood trending yet."  
"_It's been tried a couple of times but I've got a software that blocks it and changes it to fit other random tweets similar to what they've said before but with no mention of aliens or us. I then keep an alert on their feed to make sure they don't try and say the same thing in a cryptic way. I've already stopped about 50 tweets from going out this afternoon and made sure that Radio Wales was suddenly off air when they brought it up after they reported a sudden traffic jam and weird rumours they were getting about why everyone was speeding away."  
_"I know I've said it before but sometimes you scare me Tosh. I'm really glad you're on our side."  
"_Thanks for the compliment." _

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Just as Ianto predicted they reached the tourist office as a the pizza delivery guy got off his motorbike.  
"Evening" Lucy said cheerfully as she accepted the pile of pizzas from him while the rest of the team just walked past and into the office "How's the shift been James?"  
"Not bad Lucy, not bad. Quiet mostly and it's nearly over"  
"Quiet's nice. Any news about uni?"  
"I've been accepted to Cardiff and Southampton, still waiting to hear from the others."  
"Well good luck."  
"Thanks, gotta get back to work. I've got a few more deliveries to make before I'm done for the day. See ya."  
"Bye James, say hi to your cousin for me, I'll try to drop in later in the week before she goes back, I think I've still got her Christmas present in the spare room." She waved him off and then joined the others. "What?"  
"You knew his name and that he was trying to get to uni." Jack didn't phrase it as a question but they all knew it was.  
"Yeah, we get pizza at least once a week and it's normally Ianto or I who pick it up, so yeah I've got talking. Plus he's Carys' cousin and you know I've been keeping an eye on her."  
"I hadn't realised you'd got so close to the family."  
"Well I wasn't going to stay away and I didn't mean to. I just happened to pop round while her uncle and James were there and he recognised me. Like I said he does deliver pizza to us fairly regularly."  
"You're still talking to Carys?"  
"Yeah, she's at uni with an aim to be a counsellor for women who have gone through traumatic experiences and suffering with PTSD. Doing pretty damn well although she's still seeing someone every couple of months to make sure she doesn't relapse. Now are we going to eat this pizza or not?"  
They sat themselves at the table in the conference room again, Tosh had the remote control and had it paused at the beginning of the episodes,they all started helping themselves to the pizza as soon as Lucy put it on the table. Everyone apart from Owen who was watching enviously but not saying anything about it, they had all been getting fed up with him complaining about the fact that in his zombie state he couldn't eat, drink or have sex and had started shouting him down every time he mentioned it.

"Right before we start I just want to warn you that this plays with time travel really well."  
"I think we can probably cope with time travel better than normal people." Owen said dripping with sarcasm.  
"I'm not saying you can't but just don't ask questions till the end. It does all make sense, it's just more than a bit clever and you have to think about it. Also if you don't like this I will disown you as a friend"  
"What about Gwen, you don't like her anyway." Owen continued to goad her while Tosh rolled her eyes and pressed play, stopping the argument before it even began.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I'm guessing she's Sally Sparrow." Jack hadn't even lasted the whole of the pre-credits scene before he started speaking. Lucy decided it wasn't worth answering it was so stupid a question.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Loving that ITV jibe."  
"Doctor Who is a BBC show through and through."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Has that angel moved?" Tosh asked just before Sally mentioned it and Lucy groaned. They hadn't been this bad earlier that day when they watched Human Nature/Family of Blood, it appeared the incident with the weevils meant that they were enjoying just watching the episode as a piece of TV rather than earlier when they seemed to be more intense and using it as research.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Ok so that's creepy." Gwen said as Sally moved and the weeping angel stopped hiding its face behind her. Lucy agreed but stayed silent, trying to just enjoy the episode. Frankly she was impressed no one had said anything when Kathy was taken so she could allow a comment about the weeping angels being creepy.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"_Big ball of timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly-stuff."_  
"That's what you said before." This time it was Tosh that broke the silence, Lucy had been expecting someone to say something and wasn't surprised that it was the quiet Japanese girl who remembered that.  
"Yup." She nodded but didn't say any more as Sally began to talk with the Doctor.

"When can the police actually help?" Owen grumbled. "I mean good for her for. actually trying to get help but seriously, what the fuck are the police supposed to be able to do?"  
"Shut up Owen" Lucy growled having got bored of the interruptions.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"That's the TARDIS."  
"Please shut up Jack." Lucy groaned.  
"What's it doing there?"  
"I promise you will get an explanation soon just watch the episode and enjoy it."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hang on." Owen turned to look at Lucy as she also happened to be wearing a t-shirt that said 'The angels have the phone box'.  
"Yup" She said proudly, "Now be quiet the Doctor's explaining things."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Well?" Lucy asked as Tosh quickly pressed pause so they wouldn't see the trailer for the next episode, but not quite quick enough which meant they saw that Jack was in it.  
"It was ok." Ianto said dryly and Lucy turned to stare at him.  
"Ianto I love to you pieces but for the love of god please tell me that was a joke." He smirked at her but didn't say anything else, Jack was too busy looking at the image of himself on the screen to say anything.  
"He really looks like me."  
"Yeah, that's why it freaked me out so much." Lucy swiftly took the remote from Tosh and turned the TV off before anyone was tempted to watch the end of the trailer. She got up and put the DVD back in the box but kept the box with her, deciding to take it home and watch the last episodes later. She could leave them lying around and Ianto wouldn't look apart from to put them away and remind her that they had a bookcase for DVDs so they wouldn't have to go on the floor. "And while you are all stunned into silence by that spectacular piece of TV, I'm going to grab my jacket and go home. I'll call a cab Ianto, see you later."  
"Wait a minute." Gwen called before Lucy had the chance to even leave the room. "What about the angels and Wester Drumlins."  
"I made sure the angels had a box of concrete put around them after putting mirrors up too. I was worried that the concrete would mean they technically wouldn't be able to see each other if I just dropped it on them. And then Sally and Larry buried it and they bought the old house and are slowly doing it up with the money they're earning from the shop." Lucy replied with a shrug. "I promise I will answer any and all questions you've got written done Tosh, tomorrow but right now I just want to go home and collapse onto the sofa. Jack?"  
"Be off with you then." Jack laughed as Tosh moved her notebook to try and hide just how many questions she had written. "You too Gwen, go and find that fiancée of yours and we'll see you tomorrow morning."

**A/N: I'm really really really sorry. I honestly meant to put this up ages ago but this chapter was fighting me the whole time so I ended up working on other stuff and later chapters - I've finished Children of Earth if that helps. **

**As some of you know when I put the previous chapter up I was in Australia which was amazing and awesome and I loved it out there, unfortunately that came with it's own problems. Mainly that I didn't have much time for writing and that chapter 31 is a joint effort between me and my best mate - for reasons that will make sense soon, hopefully. Therefore the time difference really buggered us up when it came to writing but we're starting to get back to writing together again.  
I've also had health problems and have had doctors appointments of some sort every couple of weeks which meant that I had to come home from Oz earlier than planned, this combined with working nights and being constantly tired and having a severe case of writers block with this particular chapter is why you've had to wait so long for an update.**

**I promise I'm still writing and once the next chapter is done I've already got the next 3 after that lined up.**

**However I have got to ask you something, the chapter with my mate is getting really long (i.e. we're already at 31 pages and maybe halfway through). So I could give you the first part on Friday next week and try and get the next couple of parts finished to go back to regular updates but you might have to wait a while as we try and write the next scene, or you could just wait while we finish it all but I promise that when we do you'll get a double update.  
I honestly don't mind which one you guys want so please let me know, if you don't I'll assume you're happy to wait again.**

**THIS STORY WILL BE COMPLETED IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO.  
Rea**


	48. Chapter 48 - Sam, Part 1

**A/N: Happy Easter. This is it, I'm back!**

Lucy leant against Tosh's desk laughing as Ianto appeared behind her with two mugs of coffee.

"Here you go Cariad" He said, Lucy turned round and smiled at him as she relieved him of the two mugs.

"Thanks Ianto." She quickly handed one to Tosh and continued the conversation as Ianto hugged her from behind "I swear Tosh that man you met was The Doctor"

"He was busy at Downing Street" Tosh said defending herself

"Time Travel" Lucy shrugged, "anyway he honestly appeared in a storage cupboard off the UNIT break room."

"Talking about the Slitheen?" Ianto asked

"Yup, surely it's in the file that Tosh met the Doctor." She asked moving to properly look at him.

"Of course it is," Ianto replied, slightly offended that she doubted his archives wouldn't have all the information. "The minute she told Jack it was cross referenced with other pictures of the Doctor and put on file. I found it a couple of days ago."

"We really need to sort out a filing and archive system that's more effective than the one we've currently got." Lucy mused, "I know you've been doing a great job Ianto but you haven't even gone as far back at the 1990s yet and none of us know where anything is, we just ask you."

"We could put things onto an online system, all the recent stuff is on the computers anyway, it's just a lot of the older stuff that hasn't been moved." Tosh suggested and Lucy nodded at the idea.

"That would work if you and Ianto don't mind the extra work involved, upgrading the current system to something that we can all use would take years and probably longer than we've got but if we had an electric one, we could make it available to Archie as well..." She paused and continued to think and Ianto laughed.

"Watch out Tosh when she's thinking as hard as that it means she's not going to let it go. She had that face on when she was trying to help Emma, Diane and John as well as when she tried to help with Lisa..." He faded off thinking about his first proper girlfriend and how she had died.

Tosh gave a small smile but wasn't sure how to respond, Lucy however knew exactly what to do. She turned round to face Ianto completely and kissed him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

He came out of his thoughts and kissed her back.

"Don't be stupid it was a while ago now and you helped loads."

"Then you can't be stupid either, it's not your fault Ianto." Lucy said decisively before turning back to Tosh. "Anyway I was thinking, we need to give Archie something to do and he has such a big house up there and we're running out of space down here, and..." Before she could say anything else her mobile went off and Lucy sighed recognising the ring tone, the previous quiet day they'd had so far was just about to end. Katrina only called outside of their pre-arranged times if something had happened.

"Hiya, what can I do for you Katrina?" She asked as she pulled out of Ianto's hug and moved back towards her desk. As she continued to listen to the other end of the phone call she picked up her stun gun and quickly strapped it to her waist on the other side to Cecil so that she was balanced. Plus as much as she loved Cecil and used him more often than she would have previously thought, it was always better to start with the stun gun and then upgrade when needed rather than the other way around.  
Tosh had immediately sat down properly in her chair and was ready to work once Lucy had told her what to do.

"We'll come and get him." Lucy said after listening to what the woman on the other end had to say jotting a few things down and passing the note to Ianto, "Can you go pass that to Jack for me?" Ianto grabbed the note, had a quick look and nodded; running up to Jack's office and passing him the information. "Ok, what time stamp are we looking for in the CCTV footage and which cameras? Can you give us access to your cameras so we can keep an eye on him as well?" She waited for the reply and Tosh brought up the CCTV on her screen. Lucy smiled at her and passed down the information. "I know we shouldn't have access to your camera Katrina and we won't do it again, but we need to keep an eye on him. Thanks." She gave Tosh a small nod and Tosh brought up the CCTV cameras in the police station and Lucy pretended to pass over the code so the Super would never know that they had access to them already, "Tosh you want to look at the CCTV on the corner of West Street and High Street at 17:16." She saw Jack come out of his office, pulling his great coat on.

"Right... ok, we're on our way." Lucy hung up and she and Jack started to run to the car park, Gwen looked as though she wasn't sure if she should follow them as she was normally there for every interaction between themselves and the police. But this wasn't them simply being called in by Andy this was the Super calling in Torchwood and for a reason that Gwen didn't understand it had been Lucy they contacted and not her. She wasn't even going to think about the fact that Lucy and the Super were on first names terms or the fact that they were comfortable enough in each other's company that Lucy could joke about access to CRIMNET and the CCTV.

"What have we got?" Jack asked as they jumped into the SUV

"Man turning up out of nowhere." Lucy answered. "He had a couple of knives and some rabbits which they took away from him, landed only a few feet over from a couple of officers on patrol. Which is probably the only reason we know about it."

"So he came through the rift then?"

"Looks like it, I'm not sure if it was by choice though, there was no mention of the light show that John Hart brought with him."

"Flat Holm then?" He asked speeding up.  
"Maybe." Lucy sighed thinking of the people they kept locked up for their own protection after being taken by the rift; she had been lucky not to end up there herself. "Maybe."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Sam checked his weapons belt again as he crept down the unfamiliar corridors. He hoped he was going the right way towards the exit. He was pretty sure that he was. He knew that going back for the knives at his waist may have been a mistake tactically but there was no way he was going back into that unfamiliar world without them. He needed to find a way home. He needed to get away from this place and find his way home and quickly as possible.

As Jack parked the SUV, on the pavement directly outside the police station, it was obvious that more had happened since Lucy had received the first phone call. Too much was happening for them to have simply reprehended someone who appeared out of nowhere. Jack nodded to the side door to Lucy as they jumped out. They might have been called in but that didn't mean the officers were going to be happy with them taking their prisoner, even if it looked like said prisoner had escaped.

They ran down the corridor, the uniform who was guarding the door trying to make sure no one escaped simply took a step to the side when he saw them coming his way instantly recognising them from the crime scenes and not wanting to get in an argument. Lucy was relieved but reckoned that he'd probably still complain later about Torchwood running through the building and taking their prisoner. No matter how much easier it was for them to be able to just get rid of all of the paperwork and let someone else deal with the problem. That was the problem with the OSA, they couldn't tell people they were actually helping and because they were so secret it allowed the police to guess what they did and for wounds and annoyances to grow and fester between the two departments that should work closely, or at least amicably.

Jack pulled the door at the end of the corridor open and had to steady himself as someone literally ran into him. Catching the escaped prisoner was a lot easier than he had thought it was going to be.

Sam stumbled and swore as he collided with someone, stepping back and clenching one fist, his other hand hovering over the handle of one of the knives. He didn't know who this guy was but he'd be damned if he was going to let anyone stop him. He needed to get out of here.

Jack didn't recognise the man who had ran into him but he was in weird clothes and had a pair of knives on him so he guessed that this was the guy they were looking for. Or if he wasn't the Cardiff Police Department were a lot worse than he joked.

"Whoa there big guy." He moved to grab the man's hands to stop them from getting any closer to the knives on his side.

Sam instinctively pulled away from him, his mismatched eyes darting from Jack to Lucy and back. There was something slightly off about his eyes, like he wasn't quite focussing properly.  
"Get off me" he growled in a low voice.

"You don't have anywhere to go." Lucy pointed out, speaking for the first time. Behind him officers were starting to fall into line, blocking off the way that he had come. Jack raised his eyebrows and shrugged in a blatant challenge to the other man who was probably still under the influence of the sedative.

"I'll find somewhere. Away from here." He glanced behind him, noticing the officers. He couldn't show any weakness. Couldn't let them know he was scared and disoriented

"Listen, we just want to help you." Lucy said staying calm, Jack had taken the bad cop role leaving her as good cop. "They said you just appeared from nowhere. We know stuff about that, if you try to fight us or escape they will sedate you again and you'll wake up in our cells. And trust me, they are a lot more difficult to break out of."

"Let me go home" he replied, his gaze constantly darting around like a trapped animal. There were too many of them. Not a fair fight. He needed a plan. Some way out of these hallways

"We can only do that when we know where you came from. Do you have any idea where you are...?" The answer to this question was important. He probably wouldn't be able to guess Cardiff but there were signs in Welsh and English on the wall. The problem would be if he was from a different time as well as a different place. It was then that she realised she didn't know the man's name. "Why don't you tell us what your name is? I'm Lucy, and this is Captain Jack Harkness" She pointed at Jack who was still blocking the exit.

"No" He said shaking his head,

"No, you don't know where you are or no you won't tell us your name?"

"Both"

"You're in bloody Cardiff" Andy said, he was on the front line of officers behind the man and didn't look happy about it.

"Thank you PC Davison." Lucy said sternly.

"I know this is another one of your Scooby-doos but seriously do you expect us to believe that someone just appeared from nowhere and has no idea where he is?"

"Shut _up_ Andy!" Lucy growled. "This has nothing to do with you."

He took his chance, darting past Lucy and heading for the door. For a big man he was a lot faster and lighter on his feet than he looked. One hand gripped a knife as he aimed to force his way past Jack. He needed to find somewhere else. Somewhere he could think of a plan

Jack grunted as he misjudged the situation, Lucy had been getting through to the man - maybe, probably - and the cops had once again ruined something that should have been simple and easy. He hadn't thought that he was actually going to try and run through Jack to get to the exit.

Lucy's hand was on her stun gun within seconds to help Jack if needed, or if it looked like the guy could get a killing blow. Jack might not mind the Torchwood team knowing about his immortality anymore but she doubted he'd be happy about reviving in the middle of a doorway in Cardiff police station.

He shoved to try to get past him. He didn't want to kill if he didn't have to but he wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty if he had to. He pushed the knife towards Jack's side, wanting to get past.

Jack looked down at the knife in his side, it hurt but the pain would leave as he healed once the knife was out of him. It wasn't a mortal wound but it would definitely slow a normal person down. Luckily for them he wasn't normal. The immortal pulled the knife out of his body and threw it to the ground behind him, taking one of the weapons out of the fight.

Lucy used the distraction and confusion from Jack just shrugging of a hit that should have knocked him out of the fight to get close enough to hit the man with her stun gun. She wasn't happy that it had come to this but knew that they had to get out of there before the policemen became suspicious. Jack staggered to the side a bit to make it look as though he was actually hurt before he took the second knife and with Lucy's help carried the man into the SUV and into Torchwood custody.

Sam lay limp between them, unconscious.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Sam groaned faintly as he started to come round. His head hurt and he rolled slightly onto his side, automatically reaching out and freezing as he found nothing but air beneath his fingers. He opened his eyes, looking around in fear.

"Wh-where...?" It took him a moment before he started to remember what had happened

Lucy looked up from the book she had been reading, leaning against the wall opposite the cell they had put the man in. At Gwen's insistence he was a few cells away from the weevils. Not that Jack or Lucy would have put him next to them - some things were too much - but Gwen obviously thought they would have done or she wouldn't have had a whole argument ready.

"You're awake." Lucy commented as she slipped the bookmark in place. "We did warn you about the cells here, Jack's watching on the CCTV before you ask where he is."

"I don't care where he is" he groaned, sitting up slowly, "where am I?"

"In our cells about 40-50ft under Cardiff Bay." Lucy replied. "Can't tell you more than that, sorry"

"I could tell the underground bit. What is this place?"

"That falls under the bit I can't tell you, not yet anyway. We have no idea who you are or how you got here. So the super-secret base will stay super-secret for now."

"I don't care about the super-secret base! I was in a forest and now I'm in a city I've never heard of!"

"Well... let's just say that's our speciality. I mean it's not common but we're the ones who are best placed to help you." Lucy replied, she had expected something like that from what they had found on the CCTV. It seemed to remind Ianto and Tosh of something that had happened before she joined the team because they refused to tell her more until they had checked it out some more. She wanted to be annoyed but they were both researchers and she would simply get in the way and fidget. Something struck her as weird though.

"You've never heard of Cardiff? What about Wales?"

"No. Never heard of it" He shook his head,

"Next to England?" She offered again her heart sinking as she guessed the answer.

He looked at her blankly

"No, no of course not because that would make our job easy. Listen... whatever your name is... what year is it?" She couldn't help but feel rude calling him that but he still hadn't told her his name.

"My name's Sam..."

"Hi Sam." She said with a small smile, she was finally getting somewhere. "Don't suppose there's a surname to go with that?" She didn't wait for an answer, it had taken long enough to get a first name. "I'm sorry to press the point Sam but I really need to know what year it is, if you don't know or can't remember that's fine. It happens sometimes with head injuries or when you get sedated."

"I don't know. Sorry"

"Ok, do you mind if I get our doctor down here to check up on you? And then we'll try to answer your questions. But for now I can tell you that you are in Wales' capital city - Cardiff, about 300 or so metres from the shore in a super-secret base belonging to a team of people called Torchwood. Keeping up?"

"Yes. That's okay. I... I've never heard of any of those places. I want to go home..."

"Right... ok... good." She turned on her ear piece although she knew that they were all watching on the cameras it could freak Sam out too much if Owen just appeared without her calling him. "Owen? Can you come down here please, you've got a patient." It was in the same train of thought that she didn't tell him to move his undead arse.

"How are you calling them?" He asked curiously

"We've got ear pieces." Lucy said pulling hers out of her ear to show him, it also meant she couldn't listen to Owen grumble as he gathered his stuff. "Means we can speak to each other. I'm guessing that you're not from the future if you don't know what ear pieces are."

He slowly moved closer so he could have a look.

"I've never seen anything like that before"

"Well that just makes the problem even more difficult." She sighed putting the ear piece back in, their success rate of getting someone back to the past without potentially destroying time was not high, closer to non-existent. "He'll be here soon anyway. Just picking up his stuff, and complaining, always complaining." The last bit was said to Owen who told her to piss off as he started down the stairs to the cells. "Anyway, why don't you tell me what happened from your point of view. You said you were in a forest and then you were here. What happened in between?"

"O-oh..." He looked away, "I... I don't know exactly. I was out hunting and... I don't know it was kind of like falling. But not. And then there were so many people and so much noise..."

Lucy didn't think her heart could sink any further but after hearing that explanation it did.

"It starts with just a small headache, so small you don't really notice it and then suddenly it's everywhere..." Owen walked in but she took no notice of it, still sitting on the ground with a book in her lap and looking at least 10years older as she remembered feeling what Sam had described. "Your head is going to explode and at the same time as you think that you would prefer pretty much anything to it lasting any longer when the world is suddenly no longer there. You've got enough time to think that maybe you've fainted but you're still standing up, it's just there is no earth underneath you. And then you fall - almost like a comic where they only fall off the cliff when they notice the cliff isn't there. And the falling doesn't stop the headache it just adds to the confusion and it feels like there should be colours around but you can't see anything. The headache ends as soon as you're on solid ground again but it's all happened in a matter of seconds so you don't know if you dreamed it or not."

He looked at her and nodded, "yeah... Yeah exactly like that. I... How?"

She just stared at him, the answer written in her eyes as Owen pushed the cell door open and pulled a stethoscope out of his bag.

He looked from her to Owen, "um..."

"Because that's how she got here." Owen answered for her "About a year and a half ago."

"Oh..." He dropped his gaze, not knowing what to say

"Yeah, oh." Lucy replied "So congratulations for becoming the second known person to fall through dimensions and across the vortex. Um... I'm going to, I'm going to go while Owen finishes the check-up. He's a good doctor - an arse but a good doctor." She scrambled to her feet and left the room as quickly as she could without looking rude. Lucy wasn't sure she'd succeeded.

"Sorry..." He said quietly before looking up at Owen

"Not your fault." Owen shrugged. "Now this will be cold..."

He looked away again, "I'm sure I can manage"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy shut the door to the cells behind her as memories of the moment of her appearance and the pain and buzzing that went with it. She had mostly been able to forget it, to pretend that falling through the rift for her had been the same as it was for any time agent, simply going through the vortex without a container. But it hurt, every single atom had been pulled from one reality into another and it hurt. And she was no longer the only one who had gone through it, there was someone else. It didn't appear that he'd come from the same universe with his lack of knowledge about Cardiff. But that didn't change anything, she wasn't alone.

And Ianto and Tosh had known about it. That knowledge hit her like a ton of bricks, they had pushed her out of the centre of the hub saying that they had some investigation to run and were still busy looking at the CCTV to see what had happened. They had known where Sam was from and what he had gone through and they hadn't thought to tell her. Her shock and disbelief was replaced by anger. They knew.

She walked through the winding corridors and the anger grew, they knew she wasn't alone. And they hadn't told her.

"You knew!" She shouted, it was clear from their faces that she hadn't made a leap too far. They really had known and decided not to tell her.

"We weren't sure," Tosh replied "needed to check a few things."

"Dammit Tosh, you knew that he was from a different universe and you decided not to tell me. Why the bloody hell not?"

"Calm down Lu." Ianto said placating

"CALM DOWN!" She shouted. "What on god's green earth made you think, 'oh he's from a different world but let's not tell Lucy. Let's not tell the one person in the whole damn universe who knows what he's going through'. No you just left me to find out myself. You have no idea what it's like to know that you're completely alone. I know what you went through Tosh…" She said before Tosh could say anything in her defence. "But you still knew that there was an outside, you might not be there but it existed, and you did something to save your family that got you there. I did nothing. I did fuck all I just happened to be in Cardiff when the rift decided to screw with my life. So no, you don't get to tell me to calm down. You should have damn well told me the second you suspected. ARGH!" She pulled at her plait to force herself to think straight. "I'm too angry right now to think straight. I'll… I'll talk to you later, but you shouldn't have kept this from me."

Owen finished writing a few things down on his chart and made a note to compare Lucy's blood with Sam's. If they were both from a different universe he could learn a lot, even if they did seem to be from different _different_ universes.

"Just one more question for now." He said. "And I'll need to do this again in a few days to check that things haven't changed. The rift can do a real job on you."

Sam sighed and nodded. He'd answered all of Owen's questions as best as he could but he couldn't think properly. "Okay. What is it?"

"How long have you been blind in one eye?"

"Always. Since I was a kid. I don't notice it really causing any problems, I don't remember it being any different. I've just been trained to work around it"

"Fair enough." Owen said making a note of the answer and flipping the notebook shut. "Well that's me done then. Jack'll probably be down soon to work out what we do with you, I doubt you'll want the same option as Lucy to join Torchwood seeing as you have no clue where Wales and Cardiff are let alone who we are." He shrugged, "We'll probably find you a hostel or a flat or something."

"I just want to go home" he said honestly, "I've never liked crowded places and... I have a good life. I just want to go home where it's happy and safe. This... I can't think here"

"We'll do our best." Lucy promised as she shut the door behind her, she had waited to come back in till she had seen that Owen had finished his medical. Like she had told Sam earlier, Owen might be an arse but he was a damn good doctor and would just have pushed her back out again. "The buzzing in your head stopped yet? It lasted about 10 hours when I arrived."

He jumped and looked up at Lucy.

"No. No it hasn't stopped yet. I just want this to be a dream"

"Yeah..." Lucy sighed. "Yeah I get that. For me this world was a safe haven. I don't have much back there and I had fallen inside one of my favourite TV shows. Honestly, Sam I don't know if we can get you back, I never tried, just accepted the walls between worlds were closed and moved on. But they can't be that closed if we both came through and I know that they are getting weaker anyway, people have been attacking it from the other side, well one of the other sides."

"I need to go home. I have a life, I have a job. I need to go back, I can't stay here. Please"

"We'll try." Lucy promised. "Don't know if it's possible but we've got the best people in this universe working on it."

"How about we continue this conversation upstairs and out of the cells?" Owen asked grumpily. He had stayed quiet while slowly packing the rest of his things in his bag sensing the two of them were having a 'moment' about their shared experience.

"Good idea." Lucy agreed pushing the cell door open wide. "Come and meet the people who are best placed to get you home." Ignoring her anger at the rest of the team for not telling her the truth straight away, it wouldn't be useful right now. Besides, it had started to wane while she was waiting for Owen to finish and she was already starting to be ashamed of how she had acted.

Sam hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Okay. It'll be good to get out of this cell. I'm used to far more open spaces."

"It's still inside and underground." Lucy warned as Owen walked out of the cell first and turned right instead of left to see if Janet and Bob had started breeding yet.

"As long as it's not a cell. I've been in far too many cells"

"It's not a cell." She promised with a smile and walked towards the corridor door not looking back to see if Sam was following her trusting that the idea of getting out of the cell would be enough for him to follow her.

"Where did you put my knives?" He asked as he followed her, "Oh and the police confiscated my rabbits"

Lucy laughed. "You're knives are in my armoury but I doubt you'll get the rabbit back, sorry."

"There was some good meat on those rabbits" he grumbled

"I'll find you some more." Lucy promised as she gestured up the stairs after opening the door.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Jack was waiting for them in the main hub area, Tosh rapidly typing at her desk while Gwen glared at Lucy and Ianto passed out fresh mugs of coffee. Lucy felt even worse for having a go at Ianto and Tosh for not telling her that they guessed Sam was from a different universe and vowed to apologise to them later.

"Good to meet you properly." Jack said warmly to Sam offering his hand out to shake.

Sam hesitated briefly before shaking Jack's hand, "Sorry. For before. I... panicked"

"Not a problem." Jack shrugged it off. "You barely scratched me."

He nodded slightly, "Good. I just panicked. I needed to get out of there"

"Understandable." Jack wanted to move of before Sam realised that he had actually stabbed him quite hard, he knew from experience with Lucy that things were fuzzy in the first few hours but it would all come back into focus later. "Meet the rest of the team. That's Gwen over there, Ianto in the kitchen and Tosh working on isolating the rift spike that brought you to see if we can reverse it." he pointed at each of them as he said their name and Ianto and Gwen waved back while Tosh just looked up, gave a brief smile and got back to work. Lucy felt terrible as Tosh didn't even look at her and she was standing right next to Sam.

Sam looked around, smiling awkwardly, "Reverse it? Does that mean you might be able to get me home? I mean I'm sure you're all great people but..."

"It means I'm going to try." Tosh replied, still not looking up from her screen as she went back through the data for the rift. She could see the exact moment Sam appeared but was now busy trying to work out which pieces of information she needed.

"Oh... Well thank you..." He looked at the floor, slightly overwhelmed by everything

"It's what we do." Gwen said walking over to join them. "Just because Lucy didn't want to go home doesn't mean it's the same for you. What's waiting for you?" She asked and Lucy felt her anger flare again at the Welshwoman's comment, she was speaking like she knew the whole story and didn't think it was good enough. Which was bullshit, Gwen knew fuck all about her home life, apart from the fact she was a Torchwood fan, and was obviously still annoyed that she hadn't been told the truth straight away. Ianto must have known how Lucy would take that comment because before she could say anything he walked over and sent her a look to calm her down. She was immediately grateful towards her boyfriend who was still on her side even though she had shouted at him in front of the others not even an hour ago.

Sam frowned, looking up at Gwen, not entirely happy with what she'd said and sensing that Lucy wasn't either, "A job. A home. A partner. A life I managed to build for myself. Something good"

"Sounds nice." Gwen replied and Lucy didn't miss the way Gwen's eyes flickered over to her before going back to Sam. Ianto was now close enough to grab her hand which was probably a good thing because her getting into an argument with Gwen wasn't the best idea or a good way to get Sam to trust them to get him home. If that was even possible.

"Very nice." Lucy agreed instead. "We'll need to find you somewhere to stay. Ianto took me in when I got here but I doubt he'll agree to do it again." She looked over at him and he could see what she was really asking. After thinking about it briefly and realising that Lucy wanted to talk more to the man who was the only other person in this universe who could at least sympathise with her he replied.

"I don't see why not. We've got a spare room."

"Really?" He looked over at Lucy and Ianto, "You'd let me stay with you? I mean... you don't even know me. Why... why?"

"Because." Ianto replied not feeling the need to say anything else. "We'll need to get you some more clothes as well. I can guess your size so you'll just need to let me know what to get you."

He'd learnt his lesson taking Diane, Emma and John into Asda and Sam seemed to be from a much more rural world if his clothes meant anything, well that and the comment about the police taking his rabbits.

He looked at them for a moment before nodding slightly, "Thank you. Um... just something comfortable. I don't really know what sort of things there are in this place. This is all too much"

"I'm sure you'll get used to it." Gwen said and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"We live in Cardiff Bay about 10minutes from here, it's still in the city but on the outside." She tried to reassure him.

"I'm not sure I want to" He replied, "I'm not sticking around. I want to go home and if I can't then... then I'm not staying in your city"

"A day trip to the brecons then." Ianto shrugged as he started writing a list of all the things he would need to get. Of course it had to be at that moment that Owen walked back up.

"I'm not going back there. Camping is stupid anyway, especially in the bloody brecons" He moaned.

"No one is saying you have to go anywhere and I doubt cannibals would want you anymore. You've gone off." Lucy retorted

Sam looked around at them, confused by the conversation. He latched onto the one bit he thought he might get some reply about, "What's the brecons?"

"Part of the Welsh countryside." Jack said. "We had to deal with a situation there last year."

"Cannibals." Owen supplied.

"Yes thank you Owen. Anyway, it's about an hour or so away."

"So it's open? Green?" He asked eagerly

"Very green." Lucy promised with a smile. "A bit gray at times as well."

He smiled, "That sounds nice"

"Well I'm working tomorrow but I've got the day after off, we'll take some food and go explore." She shrugged. "Should be a nice way to spend the day even if the weather is against us."

"I'd like that, I think. To not be in the city. Cities are too loud"

Lucy didn't know how to respond to the truth so she just shrugged. Cardiff didn't feel that loud or busy to her most days, unless there was a match on. But then Brighton was a fairly busy city too and she only ever noticed that during the summer holidays.

"This is... all so different." He said quietly

"You've not even met our dinosaur yet." Jack joked. "She's sleeping."

"Dinosaur? Is that like a dragon?"

"A bit. Except it doesn't have the fire breathing part and not all of them fly." Jack laughed. "We'll get her to meet you tomorrow, Lucy may as well take you back to hers now while Ianto picks up some clothes for you."

"Oh..." he laughed slightly, "That doesn't sound nearly as exciting. Though I suppose dragons are dangerous if you don't know what you're doing with them"

"You have dragons?" Lucy asked excitedly, the possible differences between universes offering limitless possibilities and wonder.

"You don't?"

"No." She pouted as her excitement was dashed with the reminder of her reality. "We shouldn't even have Myfawny really, but she flew through a rift in time and didn't want to go home. She's the only dinosaur alive in the world, all the others are long dead and simply bones or fossils."

His eyes widened slightly, "Oh. Well... dragons aren't exactly common where I'm from but there are enough of them. And they can be really dangerous"

"I want a dragon." She sighed and Ianto rolled his eyes knowing he'd never hear the end of it.

"They're a real pain to feed. And where would you keep one in a city? I mean mine was only small and she was hard enough to look after out in the country"

"Because it's a _dragon."_ Lucy explained as though it was obvious. "Jack are we sure dragons aren't real?"

"Not in this sector of the galaxy."

"Really far more trouble than they're worth. Where would you keep it? Although flying is nice."

"But... but dragons"

He laughed, "I can see your point. But dragon fire is really painful. And they can burn anything. Not suitable pets unless you know exactly how to deal with them"

"I'm actually busy working here." Tosh said finally getting annoyed with all the conversation happening around her desk. She felt bad for snapping at Sam but Lucy just laughed.

"We'll leave you to it Tosh. Come on Sam, I'm guessing if you get dragons you don't have cars so we'll walk back to the flat."

"Sorry" he said to Tosh before turning his attention back to Lucy, "Cars?"

"Metal things that we use as transport." Lucy explained as she grabbed her coat and kissed Ianto goodbye. "You'll see."

"I'm not sure I want to" He said with a smile

"Well as I can't have a dragon we'll both have to be disappointed" She said, but with a smile to let him know she was only joking.

"I presume if you don't have dragons then you also don't have magic in general?" He said

"I wish." Lucy sighed. "Honestly why couldn't I have fallen into your world? I'll see you later Yan." She waved goodbye as cog door opened and they stepped through. "I mean yeah I wouldn't have a clue what was going to happen but magic! I mean we have science and electricity - and aliens - but still, actual magic."

"Magic I never quite got the hang of. I mean I can do basic things but... I tend to stick to the less magical means"

The cog door closed behind them and Ianto sighed, Lucy was never going to shut up about magic and dragons but it was good to hear her being so friendly with someone straight away. She really didn't have any friends outside of work.

**A/N: Please leave a review. I'm actually back this time although I've still got one torchwood episode to write (I forgot about Adrift so that's my plan for the next few weeks.)  
I've got the next month and a half of updates ready (then adrift) and another 3 months after that. So hopefully I won't have to leave you again.**


	49. Chapter 49 - Sam, part 2

**A/N: Sorry about missing Friday guys, have a midweek update to make up for it.**  
**Also as I reminder I don't own Torchwood that belongs to RTD and the BBC but I also don't own Sam who belongs to my best mate.**

Ianto walked back to the flat with bags under his arms of clothes for Sam. He could hear laughter and loud conversation as he stuck the key into the lock.

Lucy grinned as Ianto walked in and put the bags down.

"I got you some clothes Sam, pretty sure I guessed your size correctly."

"Your father was a master tailor" Lucy teased him as she gave him a quick kiss hello.

Sam grinned softly at him, "Thank you... Ianto?" He ventured, hoping he'd got the man's name right

"Nice pronunciation." Ianto said, seeing that Sam wasn't sure if he had either got the name right or said it correctly. "Lots of people can't get Welsh names correctly on their first time."

"Hey, I could." Lucy pointed out as she went back to stirring the sauce.

"That's because you heard it on TV how many times?"

"Too many." She wasn't apologetic and Ianto rolled his eyes at her.

"Do you want to go try some of those clothes on?" Ianto asked, not wanting Sam to feel out of place and uncomfortable.

Sam's grin widened slightly, "Yeah. That'd be great. And thank you again for letting me stay here and buying me clothes and everything"

"Not a problem." Ianto said seriously, he had taken Lucy in because she had known about Lisa and he wanted to be able to talk to her about that without a chance of any of the others overhearing. It hadn't exactly gone as he had planned, although Lucy had tried to help even if she knew it would fail.

He had seen, and could still see, just how shaken up Lucy really was about the fact that someone else had been pulled through the right from another universe - even if it wasn't the same one as her - and had hoped that by having Sam to talk to it would help. Plus some of her nightmares were about the moment when she had been torn from everything she knew and the immense pain that came with it, Sam was the only one who knew what that pain was. Once the pair of them had left the hub Ianto had watched the CCTV again of the moment where Lucy had described the feeling, it was her best attempt of explaining it so far but he still knew that it wasn't everything. If that's all it was she wouldn't still scream on the night when the dreams of falling hit.

On top of all of that was the fact that his job was to tidy up after what the rift left behind, even when it was people.

"I would like to try to repay you in some way. Help out around the place and things like that. Though I don't really understand all your technology, I'd still like to help"

"We'll work out something later." Ianto said before Lucy could say anything else. Lucy gave him a look that said Sam was a guest and didn't have to do anything, but even she had had to help around the house when she first moved in. And Sam was obviously proud and wouldn't be happy if he wasn't paying his way in some way shape or form.

Sam nodded, picking up the bags of clothes, "What if it doesn't fit right?"

"Then let me know and I'll find something else instead. We've got enough shops and Torchwood has enough money."

"Okay. I'll be back in a few minutes I guess" He turned and left the room, heading towards the spare room Lucy had said could be his

"I moved some stuff around in there for him." Lucy said as Sam was leaving. "And by that I mean I moved the piles of books that I've managed to collect."

Ianto smiled at her and started getting out the plates and laying the table for three.

"Gwen's not happy."

"Of course not." Lucy shrugged as she mixed the chicken in with the sauce. "What's the problem now and did she do any more training on the range? I swear she only does the bare minimum because she thinks Jack will let her get away with it. I'm looking forward to the week where she doesn't and then I can force her to stay in the hub when we go into the field."

"She seems to think that Sam could have gone home with her because she took Emma in."

"One girl from the '50s vs a guy from a completely different universe. Oh yeah, I can see how they're similar."

After a little while Sam returned, wearing a pair of black jeans and a grey fleeced hoodie, "It all fits, it's great. Thank you again"

"Must be an inherited talent from your father Yan, the master tailor." Lucy said with a smirk as she started plating up the food.

"You do know I haven't actually said that."

"Yes but you will and you know exactly what I'm going on about therefore it is still completely valid. Sam can you grab the jug of water on the side?"

"Half of what you say confuses me" He said, going over and fetching the jug, "Though this whole world confuses me"

"Half of what Lucy says confuses everyone." Ianto replied. "Don't worry it's not just you." Lucy stuck her tongue out at him in response. "If you keep doing that someone's going to bite if off."

"Promises, promises..." She teased.

He couldn't help but laugh at the couple, "Something gave me that impression, yes. But this whole place is so strange"

"Let's eat before Ianto has you believing that I'm mad." Lucy laughed.

"You do that yourself don't worry." Ianto replied, glad to see his gamble was paying off in inviting Sam to stay with them. Lucy already seemed happier, like the knowledge that she wasn't alone had lifted a part of the invisible weight from her shoulders.

"I kind of agree with Ianto on that. You're doing a very good job of making me think you're mad. Well, madder than the rest of this whole mad world" He was still mostly bemused by everything, but glad he had sort of made friends, even though there was a constant burning desire within him to get home.

"Honestly, we can send you to Gwen's if the pair of you keep ganging up on me." Lucy pretended to be offended before pointing her fork at Ianto, which wasn't that threatening as it had chicken on it. "And if he goes you can have the spare room. And it not... well there's always the sofa."

Sam laughed again, "Something about your tone makes me think you don't exactly think that's a better option."

"Lucy and Gwen don't get along." Ianto said dryly and Lucy snorted at the understatement

"I could tell. Gwen was the rather... forward one?" He asked, not entirely sure the best way to word it, "The one who asked what I had waiting for me back home?"

"That's the one. I... er... didn't tell her that I'm from a different world until I had to."

"You didn't tell her until you were preaching to Owen and Jack about helping people that the rift brought and forgot that Gwen happened to be in the room." Ianto corrected her.

"Sofa!" She threatened.

"Decaf." He replied calmly.

He smiled and looked down at his food. Part of him wanted to talk more to them and part of him just wanted to enjoy the food and listening to them talk. It wasn't all that often he got to spend time with other people his own age in a social way. Most of them found him a little scary

"You're an arse." Lucy grumbled.

"I love you too."

"Oh can you remind me that at some point I need to give Jack the Flat Holm stuff back, as well as the list of potential new staff. Do you think I could get away with making Andy our official go between and a pay rise to go with it?"

"I think you'd definitely need to ask Jack. And why haven't you given him back Flat Holm yet?"

"I keep forgetting, I've not really given him any of the paperwork back yet and he's been back just over 6 months." Lucy shrugged, she wasn't ignoring Sam but he seemed to want to stay out of the conversation and not saying anything or trying to dance round stuff would just make the whole situation more awkward. Jack would get Sam to sign the OSA anyway simply because he'd been inside the hub so it didn't matter what he heard back at their flat. Not that she was saying anything that he would understand anyway. No one else at Torchwood apart from Jack knew about Flat Holm and if Sam asked them about it they would just assume, correctly, it was a private project that Jack had, that Lucy helped out with. "Kinda got used to doing the paperwork and going over to check on them. I mean it's not like he doesn't know I do it, I know the head nurse has told him. Besides I doubt you've given him back all the paperwork that you took in those months."

Ianto just shrugged, she was right after all. His paperwork had stayed at an increased level although he had given some of it back.

"Owen wants to take some more of your blood tomorrow by the way."

"For fucks sake." Lucy groaned. "He's got enough."

"Yes, and then you got yourself shot and then you aged 60 years in about 6 seconds and had a heart attack. He wants more. Plus I think he wants to run experiments with yours and Sam's."

He glanced up briefly as he heard his name, though knew the conversation wasn't actually about him.

"Ianto was just saying Owen wants to experiment with our blood." Lucy explained as Sam seemed to come back to reality for a while, even if it wasn't the one he wanted to be in.

"Seriously though Ianto, you know he's going to start complaining again about how it would be an amazing paper and he can't publish it." Lucy grumbled as she loaded her fork with more food, she loved the man like a brother but that didn't stop him from being one of the most annoying people she'd ever had the misfortune to meet.

"Is Owen seriously always complaining? And now he has the two of us to compare surely it's just going to make it worse"

"Since he died it's got worse." Lucy said with a shrug. "Before he at least had food, alcohol and sex that could make him happy. He's a good guy but that doesn't stop him being a dick."

"I'm sorry, since he died?"

"We brought him back." Ianto explained. "But he's still technically dead, best guess is at some point the energy that's reanimating him will run out. But we don't know when that'll be or even what it is."

"So...necromancy?"

"Kind of. But alien science instead of magic." Lucy said as she finished her plate. "Anyone else want more?" Ianto shook his head.

"You can have it unless Sam wants some?"

"Alien science rather than magic. That means nothing to me"

"It's pretty much magic to us too." Lucy agreed, "Except that doesn't mean it's not science to wherever it came from. There's a race somewhere out there, lost to the dawn of time and locked up in a crystal ball on the TARDIS called Carrionites. They picked words instead of numbers, it's a different sort of science. They manipulate the world through the spoken word, tried to destroy Earth using Shakespeare once."

"Cariad Sam doesn't understand your references." Ianto pointed out, he'd got used to Lucy discussing things that had happened in Doctor Who even if he didn't always understand them or see the link that Lucy had automatically made between the episode and their current situation but Sam had absolutely no clue. He at least had Torchwood and experience with Lucy.

"I'm... Just going to stick to magic" he said slowly, still confused

"Fair enough, do you want more?" She asked as she grabbed the extra on the side. "You never answered and your plate is empty."

"Uh, yeah, if that's okay" he smiled, "thank you"

"No problem." Lucy said as started putting the extra on the two plates. "Grab the rice?"

He did as she asked. "Why is everything in this world so loud?"

"Because there is a lot of people in a small space." Lucy offered and Ianto nodded.

"Plus we constantly have electricity buzzing which we don't notice anymore but I'm sure you do."

"Is that what that ringing, buzzing noise is?"

"Yes, it's a constant stream of power throughout the world. We've got used to strange sounds and buzzes."

He nodded slightly in thought, "Is there not anywhere quiet in the city?"

"The brecons will be quiet but there is so many people that even areas that we think of as quiet will probably still be noisy to you."

"My shooting range is quiet." Lucy offered "It's got to be so that you can't hear the shooting anywhere else in the hub."

"I was... hoping for somewhere a little more open. Just so I can get my head straight. But I'd like to see your shooting range."

"No problem and like I said we'll take you to the Brecons, it's big and green and open as well as quiet. Of course we pay for it with rain, lots and lots of rain"

"I like the rain. I used to camp a lot, you get used to all weathers."

"Well it's a good thing you ended up in Wales then." Lucy joked.

"It rains a lot here?"

"Yes." Ianto agreed. "Statistically we more rain than most places"

"It's peaceful in its own way"

"It's not bad." Lucy agreed. "Ianto will argue that Wales is God's garden but then he's Welsh born and bred."

He laughed

"You don't hear him arguing." She said teasingly and Ianto just raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to eat those seconds or just tease me?"

"Weeelll..."

He chuckled softly and went back to eating, "This is really good by the way"

"Thanks." Lucy said as she went back to eating as well. "It's one of the few things I can cook that he can't. Well anything that has a white sauce in it."

"There isn't a recipe." Ianto said with a sigh, it was something she constantly teased him about. He was a good cook but needed a recipe to follow and not to just be told it was 'about this much'.

"It's different to the sorts of things we have back home"

"You can cook something from your world if you want."

He nodded, "I'll need help using your... electric stuff"

"No problem. We can teach you." Lucy shrugged as she finished off her plate again.

"Thank you" he finished as well

Ianto got up and started clearing away the plates. "We'll do all we can to try and help you settle into this world. If Tosh can't get you home we'll find you a quiet place on the coast of Wales or somewhere that's as close to home as possible."

"I told you he think Wales is the best place."

He nodded slightly, "It... It won't be the same though..."

"No... but we'll do what we can. Tosh will try her best don't give up hope."

"They'll be worried about me..."

"Time works differently between the worlds, some are quicker than others." Lucy offered "You might not be gone for that long" She didn't mention the flip side of that coin, he could only be in Cardiff a week but have gone from his world for years. She was sure that Sam was smart enough to work it out but neither of them were going to say anything about it, neither of them wanted to think about the potential that their world was speeding away from them.

"They'll still worry... He always worries..."

"So there's a he then?" She teased, "Ianto do you want to grab the ice-cream? I think there's still some chocolate cake left."

He smiled and nodded, "Yeah"

"Going to say anything more than that?" She asked as Ianto walked back in with three bowls of ice-cream and chocolate cake.

"Instead of trying to get him to embarrass himself I could tell him about how you had get shot before I could persuade you that I do actually want to go out with you and I love you."

"It's okay" Sam said softly, "I just don't know where to start"

"A name is a good start."

"Cale"

"Nice name, how'd you meet?" Lucy asked with a smile, glad that Sam was comfortable enough with them to talk about personal things. Talking about your partner might seem like a small thing but in a world that was completely alien to you and after waking up in a cell, it would be easy to think that everyone was out to get you and that you shouldn't tell them anything that could make them think of you as weak.

"Stop trying to find out gossip and eat your cake." Ianto said rolling his eyes at his girlfriend.

"Ah... I was kind of trying to kill him..."

"Ok, this is more than gossip." Lucy said interested looking over at Ianto with a smirk, he just sighed but didn't say anything.

"Not like, in a crazy 'I just want to kill someone' kind of way. It was my job"

"Great." Ianto said sarcastically. "Not only is my girlfriend an obsessive fangirl about a show that happens to be our job and our life. But I think I've accidentally invited an assassin to stay with us."

"You love me though." Lucy teased. "And it's not like I have my whole collection with me, just some DVDS, books, a poster and a couple of t-shirts."

"Ex-assassin, thank you very much. I left that life"

"See Ianto, nothing to worry about."

"I wasn't worried."

"I was sent to kill him. And I didn't. I just... didn't understand how he could be a threat to anyone"

"Fair enough." Lucy shrugged as she went back to her ice-cream. "Sounds like a good enough reason to me."

"He's a cute, shy, baker's son"

It took a lot of effort from Lucy's part not to say 'naaw' at the look on Sam's face as he thought about his partner but was aware that no matter how cute he looked saying aloud would only embarrass him.

He chuckled softly, "He always smells of cinnamon"

"Lucy tends to smell of gun smoke." Ianto said.

"Oh and you're much better?" Lucy retorted. "You smell of whatever bit of the archives you've been in that day. And that's not counting the days when we have to go into the field"

Sam looked down at the table

"Sorry." Lucy apologised. "Probably not helping. So he's a baker's son, smells of cinnamon and is called Cale. He sounds nice, seems to me an ex-assassin deserves nice."

"He fell in love with me... even though I tried to kill him... He's good and kind and safe. His parents took me in when I had nothing"

"Good and kind and safe seems perfect to me." Lucy said seriously thinking about what she had left behind before grinning, pushing all serious thoughts about her home and how much she had wanted 'good and kind and safe' to the back of her mind. "Of course I ended up in Torchwood where safe is relative."

"I took a shot in the dark. I saw Cale and I realised that... that I didn't want to just be a killer any more. I wanted to try something more. And so I faked my own death and ran"

"Good for you." Ianto said and he pushed his bowl toward Lucy knowing that if he didn't finish his pudding she would. Lucy mouthed 'thanks' at him and he smiled back. "Wanting more out of life is one thing but doing something about it is another."

"I was tired of killing. Tired of... Being nothing but their pawn"

Lucy couldn't help but wish she'd had his strength and hoped that if it had been just her and not her and Becky she would have got out years ago.

He kept his gaze on the table, finding it easier to talk while he wasn't looking at them, "all I had was that life. And I ran away in the hope there could be something better for me out there"

Lucy grabbed Ianto's hand under the table and he squeezed it. Her 'something better' was a different universe but Sam had been taken from his. He hoped that Tosh would be able to get the man back home but at the same time was worried that it would also mean that Lucy could go home.

"I would give anything to be at home right now"

"We'll do our best." Lucy promised still holding tightly to Ianto's hand. She'd do anything to have Becky with her but the idea of going back to nothing was not appealing, no matter how much she was willing to give up to be with her sister again.

Sam nodded slightly

"Sorry we can't offer more."

"It's not like this is a normal thing for anyone"

"No." Ianto agreed. "Even within Torchwood levels of normal."

Sam let out a long sigh, "I... I'm exhausted. Do you mind if I just call it a day and go to bed?"

"Not a problem. We'll tidy up. See you tomorrow."

"And thank you again for everything"

"It's fine." Ianto said reassuringly as he grabbed the empty bowls and Lucy grabbed the glasses.

Sam smiled slightly and stood up, leaving the room and going into what was now his bedroom. He searched through the clothes Ianto had got him to find something he could wear to sleep in.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy woke up breathing heavily, the nightmare wasn't as bad as it could have been but it still wasn't nice. She tried to calm down and stop shaking as Ianto ran his fingers through her hair - a method he had discovered through trial and error that always helped stopped her shaking.

"You ok?" He asked quietly as she clung to him, needing the feel of solidity.

"Yeah, I was falling, being pulled and here and... just falling constantly falling."

Ianto had nothing he could say in response, it appeared his fear of Lucy finding out she wasn't the only one who had travelled through the vortex were well founded. As much as Lucy had been angry at him for not saying anything, he didn't want to her to be reminded of how she had got to this universe if it wasn't needed.

Lucy pushed herself away from Ianto and sat up, relishing in the feeling of the ground underneath her feet. There were sounds coming from the rest of the flat, Sam was obviously moving around.

"I'll go." She said as Ianto sat up too. "Need a glass of water anyway."

Sam was in the kitchen, searching through all the cupboards and mumbling to himself as he went.

"You ok?" Lucy asked softly, keeping her arms wrapped tightly around herself

He jumped and looked over, "yeah... Just couldn't sleep... Sorry if I disturbed you..."

"I was awake anyway." She moved over to grab a glass from the side and filled it from the tap. Her hand was still shaking a bit and she put it down on the counter, hoping that Sam hadn't noticed, although if he used to be an assassin she doubted there was much he didn't notice.

"Are you okay?" He asked, rubbing his eyes before resuming his systematic search of the cupboards.

"I'm fine." She lied. "What are you looking for?"

"Cale and I would bake cakes if I woke him up by accident..." He replied softly. He knew she was lying but wasn't going to push it, they both knew what he meant by 'accident' but neither of them were going to say it.

"I tend to get on with work or something. But cakes sound nice, I'm not sure if we've got everything though, I finished the butter for dinner last night." Her hand felt steadier now and she was glad to see that the glass wasn't shaking in her hand as she picked it up and drank from it.

"Baking is work. Kind of." He looked over at her again and sat down on the kitchen floor, "I was... Just trying to see if you did..."

"We can get it in. Don't worry about it." She would normally sit on the surface but with Sam on the floor the height difference would look crass so she slid down the wall and sat with her back against the dishwasher.

"Thanks..." He turned his gaze to the ceiling for a moment, "I just... I woke up and he wasn't there"

"First year I was here, I didn't let Ianto know." she laughed scornfully at herself. "In fact the only reason he found out about the nightmares was because I let my guard down and fell asleep next to him on the sofa. I've only had a few nights alone since them, well not including the couple of months we had broken up – those weren't good. He can't stop the dreams but he can help with after them." She had said the unspoken word, but it didn't feel as bad as she thought it would be, there was something about Sam that she trusted, and it wasn't just their shared experience.

"It just feels safer with him there. And even when the dreams get really bad you wake up and the person you love is there beside you and... And it helps. But he's not here. And I thought that if I could do some baking I'd feel like I was closer to him. Does that sound stupid?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'm not scared about going to sleep anymore cause Ianto will be there when I wake up and I know that's pathetic but it..." She shut her eyes briefly. "It's like... I don't know but even though he's not having them I don't feel alone. Doesn't mean he doesn't have nightmares either - that's what this job does to you. And I knew it, I knew when I agreed to take this job that it wasn't going to make the nights quieter, that it would just add more fuel to the fire." She sighed. "On the nights when Ianto's not there, or working extra late, I do everything I can to stay awake because if I'm exhausted I don't dream. It's not necessarily healthy but it's better than waking up screaming. Never used to make a sound, but he makes me feel safe and so I scream."

"Screaming in the night meant death in my line of work. I still don't. Old habits die hard. But at least with Cale there I don't feel so bad. I don't feel so alone, just knowing that no matter what he still loves me"

Lucy couldn't help but laugh. "We make a right pair. They've only recently started being loud and Ianto was proud of me. How stupid does that sound. My boyfriend was glad because I woke him up screaming?"

"It doesn't sound stupid. Means you're not scared of making a noise and disturbing the people around you. Cale says that if I need to scream then I can but... I can't"

"You probably had more to fear than I did." She sighed. "Listen I know this new world is scary and getting here is hardly nice, easy or painless. It may be over instantly but that doesn't mean that it doesn't feel like you're falling forever and like it will never stop. God knows that by itself is nightmare inducing; it's what caused mined tonight. But we will do our best to get you home or to find you a place in it if it comes to it."

"Everything in this world is so different. My life before was... It was good, I was happy. I want to go back to it, I don't want Cale to worry..."

"I know." There was nothing else she could say. "I know."

"People needed me and liked me. Relied on me. I fought so hard to build that life, I can't give up on it"

"I've only got one person in my world who needs me and she was taken away before I left, leaving me with nothing and no one. For me this world was a new start, one I needed. But I... there's still something, something that says I should go back. Although I'm not sure what help I would be to her anymore."

"You still love her?" He said softly

"Yeah." She hit her head against the dishwasher. "Yeah I do. Becks was my world and I've made a new life here. Found love in Ianto that I never thought was possible, great friends and I love my job, I'm making a difference. But... I still miss my little girl."

"You never stop missing people like that. You can find a new life but... But they never leave you"

"No, and you never stop thinking about what-ifs. I mean if Becky had been with me when I was taken I wouldn't have joined Torchwood and I almost certainly wouldn't be with Ianto. But then I also wouldn't know any different and we'd both be safe. I don't know..." She paused. "We'll do what we can Sam, I promise. But for now we should probably try to sleep again."

He let out a long sigh, "I don't know if I can..."

"If you're going to be awake you may as well be awake on a comfy bed. Don't need to actually sleep and tomorrow I'll make sure we get some baking stuff in."

Sam nodded slightly, "okay. Thanks Lucy"

"No problem Sam. And if you want to talk that's fine, just as not talking is. I've told you more tonight than most of my workmates know. Well than anyone apart from Ianto knows. Knowing that I'm not the only one..."

"It must have been really hard for you. Being the only one who had been through that..."

"Jack's travelled through the vortex before but it's not the same. We went across it, across more than one if we stick with the theory that there's a vortex in every universe - which makes logical sense. But explaining to the others what it feels like to be pulled, being torn apart... it's like explaining colour to someone who's colour-blind or a migraine to someone who's never had one. Even when I asked you earlier what it felt like, it wasn't..."

"It felt almost impossible to describe. There aren't any words to explain what it's like."

"All you can do is compare it to other things. I had the nightmares before then, but I had never been scared of falling before. Now it's one of my biggest fears, endlessly falling."

He nodded again, "yeah... I just..." He broke off with a soft yawn

"Sounds like your body needs sleep even if your mind doesn't." She said with a smile. "Bed?"

"Yeah. Bed"

She pushed herself up and stuck her hand out to help Sam up.

He took her hand and stood up

"Night Sam." She said with a smile as she quickly washed the glass she'd used earlier up and put it on the drying rack. Lucy left him in the kitchen and padded back to the bedroom that she and Ianto shared.

"Hey." She whispered as she climbed back into bed.

"Everything ok?" He asked as she curled into his side, resting her head on his chest, needing to hear his heartbeat.

"It will be."


	50. Chapter 50 - Sam, Part 3

**A/N: SORRY GUYS. Have two chapters!**

Sam looked around with wide eyes as he stepped into the Hub. Before he'd been too overwhelmed by everything to truly appreciate the scale of the underground base. He slowed his walk as he stared around, letting out a low whistle.  
"Bit bigger than you thought it was then?" Lucy asked with a smirk. "I mean I know it's not open field and a bakery but... we do our best."  
"Last time I was here I was more preoccupied by everything else that was going on. And it's not a patch on an open field and bakery"  
"Good to know we're not getting too big for our boots and we still have people to put us in our place." Jack said walking down from his office to join them. "Good to see you again Sam, how is everything?"  
"Well we didn't murder him last night, decided that would be too much effort." Lucy said with a shrug as she logged into the system and Ianto went to go make the coffee.  
"_You_ decided it would be too much effort." Ianto said sarcastically. "I had no problem with it"  
Sam laughed softly, "well thanks. Glad to know you're so happy with me sticking around"  
"Well it's more that Lucy can't be bothered to hide your body." Ianto called over as he put the kettle on and got the mugs out.  
"It's your job tidying up after Torchwood's mess isn't it?" She called back, they had decided last night between the pair of them that the best thing to do was to simply treat Sam as a friend and act a bit more like they did outside of Torchwood with him even when in the hub, which meant being a bit less professional than normal and Ianto acting more his age and less the age-less butler.  
"And now I'm scared" Sam sighed, "good to know the people who took me in are so pleased that I survived the night"

Lucy didn't say anything just smirked and went back to checking things on the computer. Jack laughed before turning serious and talking business.  
"Tosh put you into the system yesterday and set up a bank account for you so we'll go over that when she gets here if you want your own place to stay we can find that for you as well. But really, and in the nicest way possible. I don't know what to do with you. You can stay with us for as long as you want to though."  
He nodded slightly, "okay. Well thank you. Though in the nicest way possible, I really don't want to stick around"  
"Cariad, this is what happens when you threaten to murder our guests." Ianto said coming over with a tray of mugs. "They don't want to stay with us. Sam I didn't know how you liked your coffee so I've made a black one but also have sugar, cream and milk."  
"Technically I haven't threatened to murder him yet." Lucy pointed out grabbing hers. "Right, sorry to love you and leave you all but I'm going to go get some practice in before I get on with paperwork that I need to fill out for taking Sam out of the very safe hands of the police. Ignoring the fact that he would have managed to get out of there if we hadn't turned up. Sam you're welcome to join me just make sure to press the buzzer on the side of the door before you come in so I stop shooting."  
He picked up the coffee and smiled, "thanks Ianto." He looked over at Lucy, "shooting? Yeah I'll join you. Can I have my knives? So I can practice?"  
"I'll make sure your knives are on the side waiting for you." She kissed Ianto and grabbed a file from a previously locked drawer. "Buzz me if you need anything. Oh and if Owen wants more blood I'm busy."  
He grinned, "Thanks Lucy. I'll come down in a bit if someone will show me the way"  
"Ask nicely." She said with a grin as she started down the stairs, grabbing a donut from the kitchen and shoving the file under her arm. "Although if you could please remind Tosh that I haven't seen her yet this week it would be great. Plus I still owe her an apology and the rest of that story."  
"Sure" he looked around at the others

"We'll make sure you don't get lost." Ianto said reassuringly. "Tosh'll be in soon, then Gwen and Owen about half an hour later than the rest of us, at least. And he will want to run the test again just so he can confirm what your normal is."  
"So do you need me to stay up here until Owen's done?"  
"Ideally, he can argue with Lucy after." Jack said. "I can start to go over the differences in our worlds with you now. Ianto I need you back in the archive. UNIT are claiming we've got something of theirs from the 60s, something that originally belonged to Sir Henry Kensellior's Counter-Measures team. I was planning on talking to you about the differences between worlds."  
Sam nodded again, "There are a lot of differences to get through"  
"That's why you've got me. I've seen enough worlds that I should be able to help you with it. Ianto?"  
"I'll get right on it sir." Ianto said as he picked up the tray. "Any idea what the object is?"  
"Something dangerous from off planet with the word UNIT on the side." Jack said rolling his eyes in a silent apology. "Don't bother looking too hard, I just need to be able to truthfully say we looked."  
"I'll see you later then Sam and make sure your coffee is done properly next time."  
"Okay so where do we start!"  
"The beginning's a good spot. Let's go up to the conference room and do it there." Jack said gesturing ahead of him and then realising that Sam wouldn't know where to go so he led the way.  
He followed him, resuming his curious gazing around the hub

Jack opened the door to the conference room and sat automatically in his seat at the head of the desk. It meant he could see the rest of the hub through the large glass windows and would know when the others came into work.  
"Lucy mentioned open and green. Is that just where you are or..." He asked the first question deciding he may as well jump straight into it.  
"All the places I've been to. But I avoided the larger towns whenever I could"  
"So no electricity then." Jack said, only half-guessing.  
"Nope. No electricity"  
"Ok, a brief history of Earth, where we are in it and how things work."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy sighed and put down Cecil as the light above the target turned orange. She had been ignoring it when it was green knowing that it was almost certainly Owen calling her up for her medical and so he could take more blood. But she couldn't complain too much about him removing a unit every other week as his blood bank had saved her life when she had been shot, as well as when she had aged and had a heart attack. However that didn't change that it was now pretty much a tradition that she would try and put it off for as long as possible and gripe at Owen.  
She had spent most of the morning getting the official transfer paperwork done for Sam (Katrina had been glad to get it and Lucy promised a proper explanation the next time they met up) as well as sending a message to Tosh asking her to hack into UNIT and make sure they didn't notice anything when Sam had arrived. Her weekly finance report was partially done as well which, as far as she was concerned, meant it was a morning well spent and she could get away with spending another half hour or so on the range.  
Sam's knives were still on the side (she had retrieved them from the armoury where Jack had put them the day before) she grabbed them, planning to give them back to Sam when she got top-side again as he hadn't come down yet. Which was hopefully a sign of him getting along well with the others and Jack trying to get him acquainted with this new world. Lucy wondered if Ianto had told anyone that Sam was an ex-assassin and what the reaction of the team would be.  
"You called?" She asked as she walked into the main area. Owen was waiting for her impatiently.  
"I buzzed green 15 minutes ago."  
"I know. Besides." Lucy continued seeing that Sam was still in the medbay. "Looks like you've only just finished with Sam. Oh." She passed over the knives that she had picked up from the side. "I grabbed these for you. Figured you'd want them back sooner rather than later"  
Sam grinned, "Thanks Lucy. Yep he has only just finished. And I'm really glad of it!" He strapped the weapons belt around his waist, "nice to have these back. I missed them" he lovingly caressed his thumb over the handle of one of the knives  
"Oh god you're as bad with her and bloody Cecil." Owen moaned. "Lucy, medbay now."  
"We've got a guest and I'm busy doing other things, I've got plenty of paperwork that I didn't do yesterday." She knew it was a feeble argument but had to try anyway, it was pretty much tradition at this point.  
"And my stock of your blood is pretty empty. Let me set up the drip for the blood and you can do the paperwork at the same time. I'll pester you about the medical later, right now I don't have the energy to argue. But I will need it before close of day tomorrow."  
Lucy considered it a win and shrugged as she sat down on the bed and pulled her leather jacket off, showing off her t-shirt that declared she would one day take over the world, so Owen had access to her arm.  
"Jack do a good job of explaining this place to you?" She asked Sam  
"These knives are my livelihood" Sam protested to Owen. He smiled at Lucy, "yeah, I think I've mostly got it. I mean it's still really strange but... We had a good talk about it, he flirted a bit."  
"Flirting is his way of communicating. OW!" Lucy flinched as Owen gave her no warning and stabbed her.  
"It never ceases to amaze me, you didn't complain when you got shot and yet a small needle..."  
"Yeah well the needle hurts. Anyway Sam, if Jack flirted too much don't worry about it, or even better let him know you're taken and he'll tone it down. He won't stop, I don't think he'll ever stop but he won't be actively trying to get off with you. Oh and that's not an aftershave it's his natural 51st century pheromones."  
"Right. Well good to know. I did definitely let him know I'm taken but no harm in a little flirting. I mean if I wasn't taken I probably wouldn't say no..."  
"You talking about Jack?" Gwen asked leaning over the bannister and Lucy nodded.  
"What gave it away? The 51st century bit?"  
Sam leaned back and looked up at Gwen  
Lucy returned her attention to Sam. "Everyone has been tempted by Jack don't worry."  
"You broke up with Ianto because you thought he was tempted by Jack." Gwen commented, although she said it considerably louder than she meant to.  
"Yes." Lucy said taking a deep breath and glad that Owen had finished setting up the drip so she could concentrate on that rather than what Gwen had just revealed. "Yes I did..."  
"I'm not surprised, Jack is a sexy man-wait. What?"  
"In the show..." Lucy said not looking up from her hands, finding it suddenly vital to remove the dirt from under her fingernails. "Ianto and Jack are together... I thought it would be better if he wasn't with me. So I broke up with him. Didn't work and just made us both miserable. But yeah..."  
"Oh..." Sam took a moment to process this information before looking up at Gwen "and is it usual for you to broadcast people's private lives like that?"  
Gwen flustered, but Lucy still didn't look up. Ianto might have forgiven her but it wasn't something either of them liked talking about.  
"Not her fault." She murmured, not sure why she was defending Gwen. If she had looked up she would have seen Owen stare at her before returning to putting his equipment away. "Everyone here knows I did it."  
"I didn't." He pointed out, "just seemed a slightly unnecessary comment to make. Even if everyone else in the room knew about it, I know I certainly wouldn't like people talking like that about my life"  
"We don't get along." Lucy shrugged, looking up and acting as though it didn't bother her. "Beside we're back together and it's all ok now. Although I don't bring up her _affairs_ even if the rest of us know about it too." Gwen saw her glance over at Owen and flushed angrily.  
"That much is obvious. And that clearly makes you a better person" he folded his arms, looking challengingly up at Gwen  
"You've got no idea who I am!" Gwen said angrily. "Lucy knows all our dirty secrets because she's just a geek."  
"I thought we were trying to get along Gwen." Lucy said slipping off the table and grabbing the drip, that Owen had rigged up to a stand so she could still get on with her job while she was giving blood. "There's no need for the name calling or anything similar. We both know that I don't like you and you don't like me, even though I respect and trust you with my life in the field. But funnily enough I haven't told Sam anything about your life or even hinted towards any dirty little secret that I might or might not know. I've had other things to talk about, Sam is the only person in the whole bloody universe who knows what it's like to be torn from your home. To have every atom pulled from one universe to another. So I, no, hadn't got round to mentioning that I broke up with Ianto because I thought he should be with Jack. And before you say anything I haven't mentioned about how I let Owen get killed and then brought back either. But they've both forgiven me Gwen, the people I wronged the most have forgiven me so why the hell do you keep bringing it up? I get why you're upset that I let Owen die but my relationship with Ianto has got nothing to do with you so get over it." She took a deep breath and forcibly tried to calm down, she tugged on her plait and took another breath before turning to Sam. "Anything else about my life here you need to know or can we just move on and go down to the shooting range?"  
Sam stepped back slightly and raised his hands in a half surrender, "I didn't need to know anything about your life. Your life is your business."  
"Sorry" Lucy said with a sigh, "I'm just..." There wasn't really an explanation for why she had snapped at Sam, especially as it wasn't Sam she was annoyed with. "Sorry. Um... shooting range is this way." She walked away pulling the drip with her, not looking back to see if Sam was following because it would mean looking over at Gwen and right now she wasn't sure what she would do if Gwen said something else.

Sam hesitated for a brief moment before following her, glancing curiously around the hub and trying to take everything in.  
Once they were descending the steps towards Lucy's domain she spoke again.  
"I really am sorry for snapping at you Sam. Gwen just... she knows how to get under my skin. Of course I do the same to her whenever the opportunity arises."  
He sighed softly, "it's okay. It's easy to take out your frustrations on the wrong person, I get that"  
"Doesn't make it better though and I still need to apologise to Tosh. I shouted at her yesterday when I discovered about where you'd come from. I used to be good at controlling my temper I swear." She laughed scornfully at herself and then scanned her thumb, there was a pause while the machine read the information and confirmed that she was a member of Torchwood and the light turned green giving them access to the armoury and then from there her office and the shooting range.  
"I've yet to see that" he teased lightly  
"Yeah." Lucy agreed holding the door open for him. "Welcome to my bit of Torchwood, careful with some of the alien weapons. Or aliens things that we've labelled potential weapons"  
"I think I may steer clear of those. I don't recognise... Anything" he said as he stepped inside and looked around.  
She let the door shut behind him and just leant against the wall watching him as he looked around.  
"Most of the alien tech is just a guess, or Jack's used it in the past, or I saw it on TV." She said with a shrug. "The normal guns and stuff are further back, closer to the range so we don't need to go so far to get them whilst training, I've got to keep this thing in me for the next half hour so…" She gestured to the drip that she was still pulling with her. "Just look around for a bit, I can shoot with it but it's more awkward."  
"I wouldn't know a normal gun either. Not my area"  
"What abooout..." She opened one of the cupboards and pulled out the musket that was there. "one of these?"  
He looked at it for a moment, "I might have seen something similar. But never touched one"  
"Fancy trying?" The challenge was clear in her voice.  
He hesitated before looking up at her, "what's the harm. Sure"  
"Come on then." She grabbed some of the musket balls and led him towards the range, passing over ear protectors. "You'll need these in a bit."  
He took them, turning them over in his hands as he followed  
"Out in the field you'll be fine without them but the room echos." She explained. "It's just not worth not having them. Ok, first thing, this is the only gun I will ever give you that you'll point at your face. For that reason leave it half-cocked when loading so if you nudge it you don't blow your face off."  
"Right..." He said slowly  
"It's not loaded right now and I don't want to scare you, but I doubt Cale would be impressed if we managed to get you home but you were missing half your face. Hence the brief safety talk, this bit" She pointed at the hammer, "needs to be in this position for you to load it and this position," she pulled it back fully. "to shoot. Ok?  
"No, I don't think he would..." He said softly, watching what she was doing intently  
"Good, now the scare tactics out the way this is how you load a musket." She put it back on half cock and ripped the charge and made a point of holding onto the ball at the top while pouring the powder down. "This bit's the bit that goes flying and into targets." She slipped the ball down the musket as well. "It's also not the most accurate of weapons, so we'll use the bigger targets. Finally, extra padding and the ramrod to shove it all together." She picked up a thin metal pole and pushed it all down to the bottom. "Following so far?"  
He nodded, still watching her every movement with an intense gaze  
"Good. None of the others really care about the old fashioned guns so this is the first time I've had to show someone how to use it. I've only ever played with it a couple of times, simply because it's a musket and muskets and musketeers are cool. Once you've finished with the rod, you just need to stick some gun powder at the bottom in this flash pan and pull the trigger. Ear protectors on." She put her yellow pair on and waited for Sam to do the same.  
He nodded as he watched what she was doing before slipping the ear protectors on, not particularly liking the way they made him feel deaf as well as blind  
Lucy didn't bother saying anything now the protectors were on, you could still hear a bit with them on but not that much. She aimed at the large target at the end of the room, pulled back the hammer and squeezed the trigger.  
Sam's gaze flicked from her stance to the weapon to the target and back.  
The musket ball flew from the gun with a bang that they could still hear through the protectors and hit what looked the middle rim of the target from where they stood, 70m away from it.  
"Not bad." Lucy mused as she pulled the protectors off and checked that the drip was still in place. "Like I said, this isn't a precision weapon but it causes a hell of a lot of damage." She pulled the hammer back to its 'safe' position and passed the weapon to Sam. "Your turn?" She passed it around the drip and took a step back.  
He pulled off the protectors once she had, "yeah. Let's give this a go..."  
"Stay calm" Lucy advised, "Get used to the weight and rest the butt against your shoulder but be prepared for the backlash"  
He nodded, clearly uncomfortable with the heavy weapon in his hands  
"As long as you keep the hammer half-cocked when you load it and keep it pointed at the ground but not at your feet at all other times, it can't do anything to you." Lucy tried to reassure him, not sure if she was doing a good job or not.  
"It's not very subtle, is it?"  
"This one isn't" Lucy agreed gesturing at the musket but pulled Cecil out of where he was neatly tucked and hidden under her jacket in the waistband of her jeans. "Cecil is."  
"It still makes a noise though, doesn't it? I mean it's not like with something like this you could sneak up on someone and slit their throat without anyone being any the wiser."  
"You can put a silencer on guns." Lucy shrugged. "I guess both weapons have their advantages and disadvantages."  
"Plus the supply of ammunition. Is it easy to get hold of?"  
"Easier in America than here, but still fairly easy. There are specific shops that sell ammunition but you need a gun license. Which every member of Torchwood gets once they've past their first week of training."  
"I see" He said softly, still thinking and weighing the weapon in his hands, examining it closely  
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to." Lucy said seriously seeing that Sam still wasn't sure about the idea of doing something that was so different to what he was used to; the musket was a big and heavy weapon and Sam was used to small and subtle knives.

"It's a little too cumbersome" He looked up at her

"Fair enough." She shrugged and took the musket back from him, leaving it on the side to remind her to clean it later before it went back into storage. "I mean I can teach you to use a smaller one or you can just show off with your knives."

He smiled and nodded, "Something smaller and lighter. More subtle"

"Let's see if we can find you a small gun or something then. We've got a few spare stun guns, they're easy enough to use stick it against someone and press the button. Tasers aren't bad but not that subtle..."

"A small gun sounds better. In my world they're just... not really used"

"Fair enough. They're used in my world just not by me. I lucked out in the sense that my world is similar - but without the aliens and time travel to the best of my knowledge"

"My world is totally different to this. At least... the part of it I knew."

"I was just a person, nothing important or anything out of the ordinary, just a bog standard person. And now I'm here and I'm something more, or maybe I'm what I've always been but the world is more"

He thought for a moment, "I wasn't anyone special. With my job you were taught to blend in. You didn't want to be noticed, being noticed meant failure and failure meant death"

"Fancy pretending we don't have a shitty past and shooting things?"

He smiled slightly and nodded, "That'd be nice"

"And then you can show off with your knives and I can be jealous." She added with a laugh as she led Sam towards their supply of small guns

He laughed, "I've been trained with the knives almost all my life"

"Whilst I've only ever used them in cooking."

"Oh they've been used for that too"

"Well that's ok then. As long as you used them for cooking as well..."

"Now mostly they're used for skinning rabbits"

"But you don't have rabbits anymore. The police took them." She smirked.

"Don't remind me. That was a morning's work" He sighed, "If I don't get back then... a lot of people at home rely on me"

"If anyone can get you back Tosh can." Lucy promised, phrasing her sentence carefully. if Sam asked her directly if he could get home or not she didn't know what she would say. The walls between the worlds were obviously weakening if Sam could fall through, but then she'd fallen through two and a half years ago and was still there.

He looked at her for a long moment before nodding slightly, "I hope she can"

"Me too." Lucy agreed, glad that Sam seemed to have the sense not to ask questions that he might not like the answers to. "Fancy learning how to use one of these?" She asked gesturing at the guns behind her.

"I don't see much point in me learning how to use a gun" Sam answered honestly, "I mean, I'm not going to be able to use one in my own world. You've shown me the basics so that'll be good enough"

"Fair enough, it's mostly aim at the other people and pull the trigger anyway. You might not hit anything but you'll definitely give them pause for thought." Lucy shrugged. "You can just play for a bit and show off. I should probably get some paperwork done, never ending paperwork."

Sam smiled, "That'd be fun. I can never resist a chance to practice"

"Awesome while you do that. I'll sit at the back using the table as a desk. I've got a three light system as well, so don't worry if the light above the targets changes colour. Unless it turns to red, that normally means there's a creature or something for us to deal with." She walked into her side office leaving Sam to it while she grabbed the most recent thing that had ended up on her desk

Sam put his hands in his pockets, watching her as Lucy pottered around her desk grabbing a couple of different pieces of information about their recent relationship with UNIT, and how UNIT was changing now Kate Stewart had reinstated the role of scientific advisor. Sam sighed, looking around what he could see of the hub.

Once she had what she needed to get on with the report for Jack she walked back into the range, not that she ever thought he would do anything more than glance over it and make sure there wasn't anything that would make his job more difficult. Not that he ever talked to UNIT if he could get away with it. Sam appeared to be looking round, there wasn't anything special about her range, although she had destroyed it once before.

"You can go look round the whole hub if you want. I'm sure Ianto would show you round the archives."

Sam looked over at her and shrugged, "no, it's okay. I just..."

"It's all a bit different to what you're used to?"

He sighed and nodded, looking at the floor, "yeah"

"Well all I can offer today is the range but tomorrow we can go to the Beacons which'll be a lot closer to your normal. Sorry."

"Just to get out for a little while seems... The most I can hope for at the moment"

"You don't need to stay in with us if you don't want to." Lucy offered suddenly realising just how much he was imprisoned even though he was no longer in the cells. "You're not our captive."

"I don't have anywhere else to go" he replied simply

"Doesn't mean you need to stay inside with us all day. I mean I had no where else to go so I stayed, but I'm used to this level of technology and the way the world works."

"I have nowhere to go. I don't know anything of this world. It's... It scares me" he admitted softly, looking away

Lucy held back a sigh, she knew that it was a big deal for Sam to admit he was scared and she didn't want to say anything that could cut him off.

"Ok first things first, I find playing on the range with Cecil a great way of clearing my mind. I'm sure it's the same for you and your knives. There's no point you trying to work out what next when you can't think straight. Second, once I've got this thing out of me and Owen has another pint of blood. Jack and I can give you all the options and Ianto can dig out the tents and you can be dropped into the middle of the breacons (but away from the army) and get your head straight if needed. Sound ok?"

He mulled this over for a long moment before nodding, "yeah. Yeah, that sounds good"

"Awesome. Well I need to write up this report for Jack - not that he realises that he needs it - not yet anyway." She gestured at the papers she had put on the table "You have fun."

He grinned softly at her, "thank you"

Lucy shrugged it off. "Don't mention it. Or rather mention in front of Gwen how brilliant I am. She's _still_ talking about how she calls Emma to check up on her. Oh Emma was a young girl who flew through the rift from about 50 years ago. Gwen took her in and helped her get a job in London - it's one of the biggest cities in the world"

Sam nodded, unsheathing one of his blades and spinning it in his hand. After a few moments he said conversationally, "what is it between you and Gwen?"

Lucy looked up from where she had just sat herself at the desk.

"It's really quite small, minor and petty but it boils down to the fact we don't get along. Like I'll trust her in the field with my life. But outside of the field, we're just very different people. She believes in the system and that doing things the right way means reporting things to the authorities and let them take over. She's become less naïve but still has that innate faith in authority. I learnt from an early age not to trust the authority and that telling them could make things a lot worse. Plus there's the whole TV thing and the fact I hadn't told her that I have knowledge of the future, she seems to think she has the right to know everything I know." She shrugged. "We just don't get along but enjoy needling each other."

Sam contemplated this, "must be nice though." He said after a moment, "to be able to trust people even if you don't get along with them. She just seems to make digs and say things that don't seem entirely necessary"

"Yeah well I give as good as I get. She just doesn't think before she speaks most of the time, wears her heart on her sleeve with no effort to cover it up whilst mine is hidden and I often think things through more than I should to make sure I don't give anything away that could be used against me.

As for being in the field, that took Jack disappearing for three months before we got comfortable enough with each other."

"I noticed. Like how she was saying things that made you uncomfortable being said in front of me" he sighed softly, "I'm still getting the hang of trusting people"

"I've been here for almost two years, ignoring the year that never happened - I'll tell you that story later. It took me nearly a year to admit to Ianto that I had nightmares and only got a couple of hours of sleep a night because of them. This team, Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh and maybe Gwen are pretty much the only people I trust. Truly trust, they're some of my first friends. And even then they don't know about my life before here, they might have picked up a few things but Ianto's the only person I've ever actually spoken to about it."

She fiddled with her watch instead of looking at him. "Trust is hard."

"I've lost everyone I was close to. And being raised as an assassin... I've had to kill more than one of my comrades because they became 'unreliable'" he threw the knife he was fiddling with hard at the target at the far end of the range, embedding it up to the hilt directly in the centre, "you never knew if you were next"

"If I didn't stop screaming at night, I would be stopped." Lucy still refused to look at him although she had moved on to playing with her pen instead of her watch. "There would be nights where Becks would have nightmares, those were the worst. And I would have to go to school the next day and pretend that everything was fine and that I had just forgotten my PE kit so I wouldn't have to get changed. Except that led to me getting detentions and he didn't like that. I couldn't win and I wasn't stupid enough to think telling someone would help."

"Telling people doesn't help" he replied tightly, "it gets you and others hurt" he pulled a second knife and threw it, turning to her and not having to look at the target at the end of the range to know he'd hit dead centre again. "But we've survived. We've survived and we're loved."

"Yeah..." Lucy mumbled and was glad to see that she had finally filled up the bag with a unit of blood. "I'm gonna go get Owen to take this out. Um... I'll be down in a bit try not to blow it up. It'll be annoying if I miss it." She left as quickly as she could without looking rude and wasn't completely sure if she had succeeded or not.

He watched her go before spinning around and stalking over to the targets, tugging the knives harshly from where they were embedded.


	51. Chapter 51 - Sam, Part 4

Lucy wasn't surprised when she walked into the kitchen to find Sam looking through the shelves for where they had stored the shopping earlier. Instead of saying anything she let him continue to gather the ingredients and grabbed a big mixing bowl and pre-heated the oven.

Sam jumped as the sound of the oven turning on roused him from his thoughts. He looked over at her but said nothing, just continued to lay out all the ingredients on the side

The last thing Lucy grabbed was the cupcake cases, she waited patiently for Sam to finish what he was doing and grabbed a drink - thankfully her hand didn't shake like it had the night before.

He smiled slightly, stepping back to make sure he had everything

"So what's first then?" Lucy asked breaking the silence. "It's been a long time since I baked, I could probably do it from memory if I thought hard enough. But you're the one with a baker for a partner"

"Measuring out the flour and stuff" he mumbled. "I think there's a recipe somewhere... On the back of the flour... If you wanted to look at it..."

"I trust you don't worry. We'll do any recipe you want to do. This is your gig that I'm crashing"

He nodded slightly, "okay." He didn't particularly feel like talking right now. But didn't see much of a choice, "though I wouldn't have thought the base recipe would be that different"

"Almost certainly won't be." She agreed passing the measuring jug over, "just let me know what you need me to do. Otherwise I'll just sit at the table and get a head start on tomorrow's paperwork."

He was silent for a moment, debating whether he wanted her help or not, "will you crack the eggs for me?"

"Sure." Lucy realised that Sam asking for even the smallest amount of help - such as cracking the eggs was a big deal. In the same way that her opening the door to Ianto on the night he first discovered her nightmares was, it may be a small unnoticeable thing by itself but the thought behind it was massive. She didn't voice any of those thoughts, knowing it wouldn't be appreciated instead she asked, "1 or 2?"

"3" He replied as he measured out the other ingredients

She grabbed the egg box and pulled it towards her, Ianto had been surprised when she had gone shopping on her lunch break and come back with baking stuff but she had explained why and he'd nodded in understanding. When she had woken up tonight - with a scream that she knew Sam must have heard - he'd held her tightly before she got up to join Sam.

He sighed, withdrawing back into his own thoughts as he poured ingredients into the mixing bowl

It was nice, Lucy decided, normally if she couldn't sleep she'd get on with work or watch TV but doing something, even if it was just breaking and beating eggs was a different way of dealing with it. She was left to her own thoughts but still able to focus on something when they strayed too close to the nightmare of the night.

Sam relaxed slightly into the familiar rhythm of mixing ingredients, even though the surroundings were completely different at least the action of baking was the same

Lucy thought she'd probably beaten the eggs enough and finally put down the fork and waited for Sam to need them. He looked calm for the first time since arriving, not to say that he wasn't aware of everything going on around him - Lucy was sure that was something he'd always be aware of - but he looked more at peace with the world he was currently in.

He looked over at her when he was done and smiled, his expression slightly questioning as he glanced at the bowl of eggs

Well they're well beaten..." Lucy said with an awkward smile and a shrug.

He managed a small laugh, "Thanks"

"No problem. I think I'll put excellent egg beater on my card now. Much more important that Torchwood weapons specialist." She passed the glass over to him.

He nodded, "Much more important"

"I thought so." She was glad to see Sam joke a bit with her. "What next Captain?"

"Well do you want to beat the eggs some more?" He poured them into the mixing bowl and offered it to her

"Well seeing as I'm the expert I suppose I could manage it. Another three yeah?"

He laughed, "I kind of meant beat them into the rest of the mix. But yeah, sure. I'm not planning on doing anything but bake tonight" He felt a little better now that he had started baking.

"Oh. Yeah... that makes more sense. I can do that." She took the bowl from him sheepishly and started to beat it trying not to look at him for fear of bursting into laughter.

He smiled at her before turning to lay out the cupcake cases onto a baking tray

"So you decided against killing Cale, but how long did it take you to work up the courage to talk to him?" Lucy asked breaking the comfortable silence between them as she continued to mix the bowl

"A lot longer than maybe it should have done. I just... liked knowing he was there"

"I was living in the spare room here for about 9 months before anything happened between me and Ianto." Lucy said with a smile. "I mean looking back we did all the 'couply' things just without the relationship and I'd convinced myself that I wasn't in love with him and I was fine being his friend."

"I kind of... lived in the woods and stalked him"

"I fell in love with a character from a story and knew all about his biggest secrets before I even existed in this world. I swear that's the only reason Ianto let me stay here - because I knew about the body in the basement, and I almost mean that literally. I'm not sure if that counts as stalking though."

He thought for a moment, "You knew about this world before you existed here. I don't think that counts. I was sent to kill Cale and instead decided to spend my time living in the woods by his village and watching him"

"In which case you win." Lucy said with a mock bow. "And as a reward I shall gift you the uncooked cake mixture and the rights to lick the bowl first."

He grinned softly, "Why thank you"

"I reckon this first batch is done by the way. My awesome mixing skills have done their magic."

"Nice. I've got the cases laid out already. So we're good to go"

"Just dollop it out with two spoons yeah?" Lucy asked as she put the bowl down and opened the cutlery drawer

"That's it" He smiled

"Great" She passed him two spoons. "You do that and I'll start beating the next 3 eggs."

He took them and nodded, "That sounds like a good plan, oh queen of the egg beating" he grinned at her before setting about his task

"Great and _magificiant_ queen of egg beating." Lucy corrected

"Ah, of course. How foolish of me to get your title wrong"

"Well next time peasant I shall take away the cake mix rights and shall banish you to washing up duties while I clean the bowl." She said in a posh voice

He hugged the bowl of cake mix protectively

Lucy grinned at him and grabbed the box of eggs from the side and broke them into a mug before returning to the earlier conversation. "So you stalked him while living in the forest, but that doesn't explain how you got together. Stalking someone isn't usually helpful."

"I started spending time in his parent's bakery. I couldn't buy anything but there's the little café they own. I would just sit in there with a glass of water to be near him. He started coming over and talking to me when it wasn't all that busy..."

"And the pair of you got talking and he realised that you were awesome and brilliant and he was madly and desperately in love with you."

He laughed, "Actually he realised that I was living out in the woods and insisted I have their spare room"

"What is it about great men that you are already half in love with that they ask for you to stay in their spare room? Honestly, don't they realise that it just makes things 10 times worse and better cause you are close to them and it's pure torture?" Lucy asked

"Already half in love with?" Ianto asked from the doorway

He waved over his shoulder at Ianto before going back to the cakes

"Oh god," Lucy said embarrassed. "Sam I don't suppose you fancy becoming an assassin again and just killing me now?"

"Those days are waaaay behind me. You really should keep an eye on your surroundings when you're baking cake in the middle of the night"

"I knew Yan would probably join us at some point but I didn't think it would be at the moment that would cause me the most embarrassment. Which is stupid, because with my life that's exactly how things go."

"I love you too." Ianto said grabbing the flour and sieving it. "I figured you weren't going to come back to bed soon so I'd join you. If that's ok, this isn't a meeting of the 'I survived being pulled through the vortex from another universe' club is it?"

"More a meeting of the 'I bake cake when I can't sleep' club" He looked over and smiled slightly, "And Lucy trying to find out all the juicy details of my relationship"

"She's asking questions while making it look like she's just filling conversation?" Ianto asked giving his girlfriend a sideways look. "Yeah, she does that. That and say that she knows what's going to happen but can't tell us."

Lucy pretended to still be busy beating the eggs.

He nodded, "That's pretty much it"

"Please god kill me now." Lucy muttered as Ianto laughed and took the mug of well beaten eggs from her.

He put the tray in the oven and turned to them, "Serves you right for being so nosy"

"Fine. I won't ask any more questions."

"I'll believe that when I see it." Ianto quipped and Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

He laughed, "But really, I don't mind talking about him"

"See! And I didn't actually ask many questions."

"No, you didn't. Which was very good of you"

"I'm good at my job." Lucy shrugged, "people give you more information by contradicting you or when you don't actually ask anything, cause they reckon you already know the answers."

"I know. Frankly I'm much happier as I am now than I was in that kind of life"

"Me too, mostly." Lucy agreed and Ianto smiled at her, knowing the mostly was because of Becky, Lucy smiled back. "Anyway I would just like to point out I've already done this batch of eggs but you guys are behind on making the rest of the mixture"

"Which is totally your fault for talking to us so much" He grinned, beating together the next lot of butter and sugar

"So now it's my fault you can't multitask?"

"Yep"

"Good to know. Anything else that's totally not my fault that you're going to blame me for?"

"I'm sure we'll come up with something"

"With friends like you why do I need Gwen?"

"Because I can give you coffee and sex." Ianto replied straight faced.

"Did not need to know that bit" He pounded at the cake batter and the bowl along the counter to them

"Which bit the coffee or the sex?" Lucy laughed, "Cause Ianto is pretty good at both, his coffee tastes like heaven and..."

"And if you continue talking I'll file a report about harassment in the workplace." Ianto swiftly interrupted her.

"We're not at work though, we're at home." She teased

"Just make the cake. And change the subject"

"We could go back to Sam's love life?" Lucy teased, it was nice having a friend outside of work and it was easy enough to forget that they were even having this conversation because both Lucy and Sam had had a nightmare and wanted something to distract them from the visions of Morpheus

"As long as the conversation gets away from sex, I'm good to talk about pretty much anything"

"Well that's definitely worth knowing."

He rolled his eyes

"Lucy stop looking at him like he's a new alien gun. He doesn't have to tell you anything."

"I know, but isn't this how your supposed to act with the gay best friend."

"Not when you've only known each other two days and the boyfriend is in the room. I think even if I wasn't here Sam probably wouldn't want you to act like that."

"Fair enough." Lucy shrugged and sagged a bit.

"Juuuuuuust make the cake"

"I'm making the cake. Ianto?"

"I'm not giving you coffee but I can make some hot chocolate."

He smiled as he listened to them

Ianto got to work making hot chocolate for three while Lucy returned to helping Sam finish the second batch and start the third. At some point they'd have to return to sleep but not yet.

He kept softly smiling as he worked on the cakes  
"You do know you're an overly romantic idiot." Lucy said to Ianto who rolled his eyes, Lucy told him this fairly regularly whenever he did anything even remotely romantic, which making hot chocolate because he knew she wanted it apparently was.

"I do believe you've told me that before."

"Yes well I meant it before as well." She added when she saw him automatically add three marshmallows to her mug while he was still mixing and pass the fourth one over to her knowing she would want it.

Sam focussed on the cakes, trying to blot out their talking. He'd wanted some time on his own to get his head straight and with the best will in the world, Lucy and Ianto being cute and lovey with each other wasn't helping him to clear his head. In fact it was just making him feel worse. More homesick than he had been before.

Lucy noticed that Sam had sped up on stirring the mixture and looked over at Ianto who passed her her mug of hot chocolate and put Sam's next to him. He had got the silent message she had tried to send something was up and it was time for the pair of them to back out.

"I think I'm ready to go back to bed." She said trying not to be too obvious and also surprising herself at it actually being true, spending about an hour or so talking and baking had helped. "You coming Yan?"

"Yeah, you ok washing up Sam or do you want us to do it tomorrow morning?"

Sam looked up at them, "I can do it. I'm not ready to sleep yet"

"If you do decide to leave it don't worry about it." Lucy said warming her hands on her hot chocolate mug. "And we should have enough stuff for you to make at least 2 more batches."

He nodded slightly, "thanks. Is there anything to decorate them with when I'm done?"

Ianto opened a cupboard, "Everything Lucy bought for you is in here, I cleared it out so it's yours to use for as long as you're here."

He smiled, "thank you, Ianto. I'll probably stay in here tonight. If that's okay?"

"I don't remember adding any provisos when I said you could stay here, try to keep the volume down and not wake us up as we've got to be up early for work. But apart from that you're fine to do most things."

He nodded, "okay. I will, thank you"

"Night Sam." Lucy smiled at him and the couple left to return to their bedroom, after all as Ianto had said they had to get up for work later that morning.

"Goodnight" he watched them leave before going back to his cakes.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto rolled his eyes when he walked into the kitchen the next morning to see Sam asleep at the table surrounded by cakes and empty flour and sugar bags, he'd obviously need to go shopping again later and buy double the amount that Lucy had previously bought. Lucy slumped in after him, noticing Sam but not being awake enough to do anything apart from pull a chair out and sit down. It was the same every morning, he'd pull the duvet off her to make sure she got up and she'd walk into the kitchen having pulled whatever clean clothes were the closest while she waited for him to make the coffee so she could wake up properly. Unless they were woken up by a phone call from Jack ordering them into work

Sam didn't notice them at first, fast asleep at the table. There was flour in his dark hair and smudges of brightly coloured icing on his cheek.

"What time do you think he got to sleep?" Ianto asked as he started making three mugs of coffee, Sam would probably want one.

"Dunno" Lucy replied, still half asleep herself so not really caring about anything more than watching the kettle boil. Sam stirred at the sound of the kettle and their voices, blinking sleepily at the table for a moment before very slowly sitting up.

Ianto noticed him first, Lucy wouldn't notice anything until the light on the kettle turned green and whistled that it was done.

"Coffee?" He asked lifting the mug that he had designated for their guest. Lucy turned her head and smiled at him before going back to watching the kettle, waiting. She knew exactly how long it took for the right amount of water to boil for two coffees every morning but hadn't perfected the wait for three

Sam smiled slightly and nodded, "Thanks..." he murmured, rubbing his eyes and stretching

"Do you think you made enough cakes?" Ianto asked gesturing to the surfaces as he turned back to the space he had made for the mugs

"It was enough to help me get back to sleep" Sam smiled, "I even managed to ice most of them"

"Well they won't be wasted. I might even sell some in the tourist office for charity if that's ok."

The kettle whistled and Lucy sat up straighter knowing that meant she was less than a minute away from liquid gold.

"Yeah. That'd be great. Fine." He yawned widely

"It seems travelling from on universe to another isn't the only thing you and Lucy share." Ianto said as he passed Lucy and Sam a mug each

He took the mug gratefully and yawned again, "I'm usually better in the mornings... but then again usually I sleep more"

"I'm used to Lucy in the mornings don't worry about it." Ianto said and Lucy was awake enough to swear at him as she took the mug and sighed as she took the first sip. It was a god-honest super power Ianto's ability to make coffee.

He laughed softly and sipped the coffee

"We've not got anything major going on at work - apart from you obviously." Lucy said as the coffee gave her body the energy it desperately needed. "And you don't need to come in if you don't want to. I've got a few phone calls to make to start organising the remembrance ceremony but apart from that it shouldn't be a busy day. Touch wood." She added the last bit as she touched the table. Ianto gave her a weak smile, she had mentioned to Jack the idea about the remembrance ceremony a week or so ago and he had given her the all clear. Torchwood London and Torchwood Cardiff might never have been friends but all the people who died in the attack (as well as the small amount of them who survived) deserved the right to be remembered and honoured for their actions that day

"I... don't have anywhere else to go" he pointed out quietly

"Well I never need an excuse to put off paperwork, but you've just provided me with one. Today was supposed to be my day off anyway" Lucy said with a shrug as she drained the last of her mug

He laughed softly, still slowly sipping his coffee

"No you just need me to remind you it exists" Ianto pointed out.

"I'm better than the others, just procrastinate for a bit longer than you in the shooting range that's all." She replied grabbing a cake and standing up. "Right I'm going to go and get ready properly, you might want to get the flour out of your hair Sam, and while I think the icing on your check is cute you might not agree with me" With that leaving comment she left the two men in the kitchen.

Sam nodded and looked around, "Yeah... I should clean-up"

"I can tidy the kitchen while you get ready" Ianto offered as he continued his coffee, in the habit of enjoying it in the morning and not downing it like his girlfriend did

"But I was the one who made all the mess..."

"Well you can tidy up if you want but I'm used to tidying up after people"

"I can tidy up my own mess" He put his coffee on the side and stood up

"Lucy'll offer to do a bit when she gets back." Ianto managed to lean on the side and keep his dark suit free from flour. "She helped last night remember, something about an expert egg beater."

He nodded, "Yes, I remember" He leaned over the sink slightly to brush the flour from his hair

Ianto just watched a small smile on his face. "You could use the shower"

He glanced over at him, "I don't want to spread flour through your place"

"We've both spread blood and guts through this place and it's survived, some flour won't harm it"

He hesitated, "I'm fine"

"Choice is yours. I'm going to go see how ready Lucy is, she doesn't often go back to bed, but after a night like last night..." Ianto trailed off, Sam must have heard her scream last night before she joined him in the kitchen but that didn't mean he wanted to bring it up.

He nodded, "I'll start cleaning up" He wasn't going to say anything about it.

Ianto was grateful that Sam didn't say anything, it had been the something he was worried about when he invited the ex-assassin to stay with them. He left the kitchen and found Lucy standing in the bathroom staring at herself in the mirror and splashing water over her face

"You ok?" He asked

"Got more sleep than normal, Sam's cake making thing worked." She replied but he wouldn't let her dodge the question.

"That wasn't what I asked."

"It's the only answer I can give right now. Rain check?"

"Sam's tiding up the kitchen." Ianto moved on knowing that was the best he was going to get for now, Sam turning up was affecting her more than she made out.

"I'll go help him." She dried her face and smiled, it nearly worked. "I helped make the mess too."

Sam was methodically cleaning and putting away what they'd used last night, allowing himself to get lost in his thoughts

"I'll dry up" Lucy said swiftly taking the towel from Sam's hands

He looked over at her, a little startled, "Oh... thanks"

"You're a guest and I helped make the mess."

"But... thanks all the same"

"No problem" They worked in silence enjoying the quiet company

He sighed softly

"Missing home?"

Sam glanced over at Lucy, "Yeah"

"Me too, not all the time. This place has become home now and I've done my grieving for Becks, but in the quiet moments."

"I need to go home"

Lucy didn't say anything, it was a damning silence but she didn't want to lie. If anyone could do it Tosh could (baring the Doctor but he was busy exploring the universe with Donna) but that didn't mean it could be done

"Tell me the truth... can I get home?"

Lucy didn't say anything, she didn't know what to say.

"Tosh won't stop until she exhausted all possibilities" Ianto said coming into the kitchen and rejoining the conversation. "but we don't know much about how to control the rift at the best of times let alone how to use it to cross universes. The fact we have two sets of data will definitely help"

Sam looked over at Ianto, "So... you don't know. I might just be stuck in this world forever?"

"We don't know." Ianto agreed. "But if you're willing to try so will we"

"Sorry" Lucy said as she finished the drying up. There was nothing more to be said, she had accepted her fate and life in Torchwood. But Sam was different, he had no idea about the rules he was trying to break, and maybe that meant he would succeed where she had been scared to fail. But either way, it wouldn't be easy

He leaned against the counter, "I can't give up. I can't stop trying. I have a home and a life and I'm going to get back to it"

"We'll keep going until either you stop trying or Tosh runs out of ideas." Ianto promised. "But for now we need to get to work, you going to come with us now or do you want to come in later?"

"I can't stop trying" Sam said firmly. "And I... I wouldn't be able to get there on my own"

Lucy grabbed the car keys. "Let's go then, we've got showers at work you can use if you want to go grab some clean clothes, and then we'll make good on our promise to drop you off some place green and wild."

"Okay great"

The car journey to the hub was done in quiet comfort, Lucy was mentally making a note of the few things she'd need to grab - sleeping bag and tent for example - as well as the work that had to be done when she got in. She hadn't had a proper chat with Katerina since they took Sam into their custody and the Super would be looking for an explanation of what was going on.

Ianto pulled into the car park and Lucy got out of the car still holding a large box of cupcakes, waiting patiently for Sam to join her as Ianto walked ahead so he could put the kettle on.

"I've got a bit of work to do and then I'll take you if that's ok. You can play on the shooting range. I promise it won't take too long"

Sam got out of the car and looked over at her, "Yeah, sure. How long is it you're going to be?" He asked

"Maybe an hour at the most. Ianto won't let me stay in for much longer anyway seeing as it's my day off. I err... I had a bad habit of ignoring them until I burnt myself out." She said the last bit with an awkward smile. "I promise you'll get into the countryside as soon as possible. Probably before Gwen gets in but if she gets in early we'll leave straight away"

Sam nodded thoughtfully, "Are my knives somewhere I can get to them?"

"Yeah, I locked them back up when we left last night but the first thing I do is unlock that anyway."

"Thanks. If I can get some practice in before we go I won't feel so bad being out without them"

"I'll write you an official thing that you can keep with you to make sure they're not taken off you again. Can you grab the door?" She gestured with the box still in her hands. "There are some advantages to being part of a top secret organisation above the government after all."

He moved ahead to open the door, "I think I'd probably do bad things to your local wildlife population. Seeing as that's what I do most of the time"

"Well that's up to you. Thanks. The offer is there though. Let me dump these behind the desk and then I'll unlock the armoury for you"

"I'd like it. But honestly it's probably not the best thing to happen. Particularly if I'm going to end up being here long term"

"Fair enough." She put the box of cakes down in the back room of the tourist office and then opened up the wall so they could walk into the main hub. "Like I said it's up to you. I swear I won't be too long on these phone calls. I know how much you don't want to be inside."

"Thanks. I'll be okay down in the shooting range I think. A little time alone in the quiet would be nice"

**A/N: I really am sorry, my laptop had 'issues' with internet and I've been having a few issues of my own in RL. What I can tell you is that I only have another 3 chapters to finish between here and the End!**

**So, providing I'm not an idiot and I don't forget again it should be plain sailing from now onwards**


	52. Chapter 52 - Sam, Part 5

Lucy pottered around the house as she waited for dinner to cook. Ianto had gone to pick Sam up from the designated meeting spot after he'd spent a few days in the countryside and away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was weird not having Sam in the house to begin with, the pair of them hadn't taken long to get use to an extra body in the house.

Earlier that day Tosh made what she thought was a break through and the chance of Sam getting home suddenly increased tenfold, Ianto said he'd talk to Sam about it in the car on the way back as Lucy didn't know what she thought about it. If Sam could get back then she probably could too.

She returned to the kitchen as the buzzer went off and heard the key in the door as Ianto and Sam walked back in.

Sam bounced slightly as he entered the house, far happier than he had been in all his time so far staying with them, the few days out in the country being the best thing for him, even if it had rained for a considerable amount of time. He was slightly mud streaked but grinned widely at Lucy as he saw her

"You look happy. Although I might suggest washing the mud off before you eat. I might not mind as much but Ianto is fastidious about having a clean kitchen. Food's in about 10 minutes."

"Yeah, I need to shower. Cale always said that I shouldn't be at the table covered in mud. He also protested a lot to hugs when I was covered in mud"

"The hot water's on. We'll let you know when dinners done, I figured it was easier to just make pizza for tonight"

"Great. Thanks"

"No problem. I'm glad you had a good time Sam. It's good to see you smile properly"

"I've missed being out in that kind of space"

Lucy grinned at him and gestured him down the hallway. "I'll stick your bag back in your room. Now go shower, it might make you smile again but it's also made you smell."

"You smell" he retorted childishly, though smiled at her as he went into the bathroom

"Honestly sometimes I think I'm living with a pair of 5 year olds." Ianto said dryly as Lucy stuck her tongue at Sam's back "Even David and Mica don't act like that"

"How was the drive back?" Lucy swiftly changed the topic of conversation.

"What you're asking is did I tell him Tosh thinks she might be able to get him home? It went ok, he was quiet for a bit but I'd place money on him taking the chance. No matter what odds Tosh gives him. He'll be ok Lu."

"I know. I just..."

"You worry and you don't want to be alone"

"Yeah." She sighed and leaned against him. "I know I'm not alone. I've got you and the rest of the team as well as Carys and Katrina. But still... there's no use worrying about stuff right." She said trying to pull herself back together. "Another rain check?"

"On your emotions?"

"Something like that." She gave him a quick kiss. "I'd ask you to make some coffee but it doesn't go that well with pizza." They were interrupted by the smoke alarm going off "Shit! I didn't take the garlic bread out." Lucy pulled herself out of the hug and darted into the kitchen to make sure that the garlic bread didn't completely burn, Ianto laughed and followed after her taking the alarm down and turning it off.

"Well that's one way of breaking the moment." Ianto said rolling his eyes and Lucy started wafting the smoke with a tea towel

Sam appeared a moment later, a towel around his waist and soap suds on his skin. His eyes were wide, visibly terrified by the smell of smoke in the kitchen

"Sorry!" Lucy apologised with a wince. "I slightly burnt some of dinner. It's fine, the alarm was just to let us know about it before a fire started."

"What? I... Is there...?" Sam stepped back slightly out of the kitchen to take a few breaths where the air smelt less like smoke

Ianto took over wafting the smoke out while Lucy followed Sam.

"Sorry. Again. I promise there isn't a fire or anything, just a bit of smoke and some burnt garlic bread. I'm an idiot."

Sam looked up at her, trying not to let his continued fear show in his face "I... I'm okay... it's okay..."

"It's not ok but thanks for pretending."

"I..." his voice trembled faintly

"I fucked up. Sorry to ruin your good mood." Lucy left him too it, understanding that he needed time to pull himself together again. Ianto gave her a quick hug before asking her to set the table while he made sure that the alarm didn't go off again, the pizza was nearly done anyway.

Sam slowly went back to the bathroom and turned the shower back on, sitting down under the stream of water.

A few minutes later Ianto knocked on the bathroom door to let Sam know that dinner was ready, he had turned the buzzer off so that Sam wouldn't be surprised by it again. It was the small everyday things that the pair of them kept forgetting wouldn't exist in Sam's world.

"I couldn't have screwed up more could I?" Lucy asked as Ianto walked back into the kitchen.

"It's fine. We'll just let him come back when he's ready. We can always reheat the pizza. Now instead of making a big deal about it just enjoy dinner. I've manage to save some of the garlic bread."

She couldn't help but laugh slightly and grabbed a plate of food.

"Sit on the sofa and see what random crap is on?"

After a short while Sam slowly emerged, mostly driven by the fact the shower had gone cold and he was hungry. He looked around for the others

"There's cold pizza on the side that we can heat up for you if you want." Ianto said from the sofa, he had started reading his book while Lucy was sitting on the floor trying to work out what DVD to put on, she sent Sam another apologetic smile before going back to her decision

"It's fine cold" he said softly, going into the kitchen to retrieve it

"If you're sure. Lucy, maybe not something that needs a lot of explanation."

"Don't worry." She pulled Fantasia off the shelf. "This'll do. Music and dancing hippos."

Sam returned with his pizza and sat down on the floor

"I am sorry Sam." Lucy said as she stuck the DVD in the player.

"It's fine" he started to eat slowly, his gaze darting around the room

"Ianto said he spoke to you about what Tosh thinks."

Sam nodded, "she might actually be able to get me home"

"She reckons she'll know for certain in a week or so if she can get you back. But the chances are a lot better" Lucy tried to get conversation going again but was resigned to it being stilted and uncomfortable.

Sam looked up and his smile was less forced, "I'm glad. I like it here but you guys will be able to get back to normal if I go home. And I miss Cale"

"Don't worry about us getting back to normal. Lucy doesn't know the meaning of the word." Ianto said glancing over his book.

"Well what might count for normality then"

"We'll get you sorted don't worry. Back to your bakery and green field." Lucy felt more comfortable saying this now that Tosh thought it was actually possible.

"and my baker" Sam replied, "he'll be worried"

"Well getting back to your baker goes without saying."

"I know." Sam sighed, "he'll be worrying about me a lot. He always does"

"On a slightly different but related topic. It's going to be a while for Tosh to actually make the necessary changes to the rift manipulator. So fancy teaching me how to use knives in the mean time? I mean you don't have to." She added quickly "But I'd love to learn and it could be a nice way of passing the time."

Sam thought for a moment, "sure. I could do that"

"Like I said it's up to you and you don't have too." Lucy continued rambling having not really hard that Sam had said yes "But it could be fun, and I figure who else to learn from than an ex-assassin. Although I'd be surprised if Jack didn't know how to use knives."

"Lucy he said yes." Ianto said putting his hand on her arm to calm her down.

"He did?"

Sam laughed softly, "yeah. It'll be good to use my skills properly"

"Thanks." Lucy grinned at him

Sam grinned back, "I mean killing animals to sell is all well and good. But..."

"But teaching a completely newbie is a bit more fun."

"Absolutely. And I mean the basics are the same but using them on another human without them even knowing you're there... it's disturbingly empowering"

"Well I'm not planning on using it on humans but aliens trying to invade the world is entirely possible. Plus I just want the challenge of it."

"If you could not kill someone under our watch it would be really useful" Ianto added. "The paperwork is a pain."

Sam was silent for a moment before nodding, "It's in my past. Sometimes it's... I revert to it a little"

"You're not the only one. Don't worry about it." 

Lucy led Sam straight through to the shooting range when they got in the next morning. Tosh gave them a brief wave and got back to looking at a screen of complex equations while Jack was on the phone in his office getting angry with someone. She didn't want to look desperate but she was looking forward to starting her lessons with the ex-assassin

Sam followed her, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. He had regained some of the enthusiasm from the evening before and was looking forward to showing off to Lucy

"So normally this is my realm but I guess you're in charge now." Lucy said pulling Cecil and his holster off her hip and placing it on the table at the side.

"Okay for starters, I know it doesn't need saying but these things are dangerous. Sheathe or unsheathe them the wrong way and you'll end up hurting yourself more than your target"

"Fair enough. The first thing I told you about guns was the safety and not to point it in your face"

He held out his hand to show her the faint scars across his palms, "I was only a kid when I started. At eight years old I was a lot more clumsy"

"Ouch." Lucy said with a wry smile "I'm guessing I'll have similar ones before this is over."

"At least you seem to have some kind of coordination" Sam smiled back, "where do you want to start?"

"Ready to start wherever you think is best. You're the expert here, I'm just the measly student"

"And I'm several years out of practice. There must be something specific you want to know?"

"I want to be useful with them. We face many different types of people with different technologies - some are able to jam guns. So having an extra weapon, one that's low tech, can only be good."

He folded his arms and leaned against the wall, his eyes narrowed as he thought this over. "You want range or hand to hand?"

"Ideally range but having a few hand to hand moves would be good. We try not to fight in close contact but it can't always be helped"

"Okay" Sam seemed to come to a decision. He pulled a knife, flipped it in his hand and flicked it towards the target at the other end of the range, hitting it dead centre

Lucy gave a low whistle "That's more than a bit impressive."

Sam grinned at her, "not beginner stuff"

"I would have been surprised if it was. No point in showing off with just basic stuff."

"Exactly. The throw itself is fairly simple but it's learning the positioning. And making it look effortless is just a skill I have"

"So where do we start?"

"Poise" Sam said, "the balance is as important as the throw"

"Right." Lucy lined up with the target like she would if she had a gun in her hand "This is the prime position for shooting a gun. I mean I can't always use it what with running away from aliens but still..."

Sam looked at her stance critically, "remember a throwing blade is a lot lighter. You'll be moving with the throw not against the recoil"

"Right. So... instead of pushing forward against the movement I've got to go with it? How should I stand then? Cause my weight is mostly on the back foot at all times"

"Yeah. Not much but... Its a flow"

"Show me slowly and I'll copy?" Lucy asked trying to move to stand in the same position that Sam had been when he had thrown the knife

Sam moved into the basic position he had first been taught so many years ago, "it's good for a starter. But when you learn the balance you'll figure out how to do it even in cramped conditions"

Lucy made a few small adjustments. "One you know the basic rules you can make the adjustments to the situation, right? Is this ok?"

"Exactly" sam watched her and smiled, "that's good but..." He moved forward and gently repositioned her.

Lucy let Sam move her into position although she flinched slightly when he touched the scar on her back - not that he had any reason to know about it.

"You okay?" He asked as he felt her flinch

"Yeah I'm fine." Lucy said determined to move on and not come back to it. Sam might have seen her in the middle of the night weak from nightmare but he didn't need to see proof of the times she had failed. She shifted her balance from one foot to the other quickly getting used to the movement. The position wasn't that different from the one she used with Cecil but she was pretty sure that the minor difference would cause more than one mistake.

He nodded, "looking good" he handed her a sheathe, "draw"

Lucy took the sheath from him, waiting to draw for a bit until she got used to the weight in her hands. It was less than Cecil but still more than she would have thought. Holding the sheath in her left hand she pulled the knife out with her right. He stepped back and watched her critically

It felt weird in her hand but she ignored that feeling and tried to get used to the balance and the shape of the grip.

"So how bad and awkward do I look?"

"very" he smiled

Lucy laughed "Good to know that I don't just feel it. How do I get better? Apart from hours of practice?"

"More hours of practice"

"How did I guess that would be the answer?" Lucy shrugged, quickly stretching her muscles and then getting back into the position that Sam had show her. "Ahh well, hardly anything worth doing is easy."

Sam grinned at her, "that's always the answer"

"I suppose after lecturing Gwen about making sure she got her practice in I have to do the same. What drills should I constantly do oh great knife master?" She gave a small mocking bow making sure to keep her feet in the same place.

"Let's learn the basics. Then work on drills"

"Right so basic number 1. Stand properly" She gestured at the position she was in with her left hand that was still holding the empty sheath "Basic number two. Hold the knife like it's not radioactive and poison?"

He laughed, "exactly"

"Basic number 3?"

"Always follow through"

"Don't be scared of the knife and follow through with it. Ok." There was a short pause. "No not ok, you're going to have to show me."

He nodded and took up the same stance as her, though much more relaxed. He picked up a knife and looked at her. "Watch closely" he demonstrated the movement a couple of times at a slower speed before throwing the knife

Lucy followed his movement with sharp eyes, his whole body moved with the knife although she was certain he was making the movements larger than life for her, she had seen him throw his knife before with hardly any motion after all.

"Here goes nothing." She tried to copy Sam and threw the knife. It hit the floor with a loud clang, a couple of feet in front of her.

He laughed, "yeah that was pretty much my first time too. Relax a little. You're way too tense"

"Basic number 4." Lucy said trying not to turn too red as she picked up the knife from the floor. "Relax" She tried again and this time it bounced off the edge of the target.

"Much better! You've got to move with it. You can't do that if you're so tensed up"

"That was basic number 3 wasn't it?" She asked as she once more picked up the knife from the floor, although at least she had to move further this time. Sam's knife was still in the middle of the target, reminding her of what was possible

"Basic number 3 was to follow through with it"

"1. Stand properly.

2\. The knife isn't poison.

3\. Follow through.

4\. Relax.

5\. Move with it. Anything else I need to know? Do we have a 6 or 7?"

"Aim?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Ok so how do I try and get the aim and the placement right? With Cecil I line up the target with the butt of the gun."

"Or is aiming lesson number 2?"

He paused to think about it, "aiming is probably important. But technique is also"

"Learn to hit where you want once you learn how to hit?" Lucy asked throwing the knife again, once more bouncing off the target although it was slightly further from the edge.

"Exactly!"

"So for now I just do this over and over again then? Trying not to blunt the knife."

"Yeah please don't blunt all the knives. And try adjusting your stance a little" he shifted to guide her into position. This time Lucy was prepared for it and didn't flinch away from Sam's touch although she still tensed up a bit.

"Better?"

"Yeah. Relax. If you want me to not touch you then say. It's no big deal. It's just easier than trying to explain it"

"Sorry. Just... Sorry." She looked away from him and tried to focus on the minute changes he had just made to the way she was standing.

"Hey, you don't need to be sorry. I just need a little help knowing the best way to work with you. If what you need is just showing and telling that's fine, but I need to know"

"Showing and telling would be easier, thanks. I'm getting better but some things are too deeply ingrained." She added the last bit with a need to justify herself, it had taken her a while but she had got used to the team and the easy companionship they had with each other and the way that Jack would slap your back if you'd done well. Gwen was unsurprisingly the most hands-on member of the team but Owen was a close second although he would claim that was just because he wanted to check for injuries.

Sam nodded, "okay. From now on no touching unless I actually think you're going to end up hurting yourself"

"That sounds fair enough. Thank you, Sam."

He smiled slightly then looked away, "also I figure... You're going to have to work out how to aim by yourself"

"Hey." Lucy laughed as she tried throwing the knife again, once more hitting the edge of the target although this time it didn't fall to the floor. "A couple of nights ago I was queen of the egg beating, surely that means something to you." She eyed the knife in the target. "And I have no idea how I managed to do that."

"Practice. And relaxing into it" he replied, "and you are the queen of egg beating. But I've always had to compensate my aim because of my blindness. I don't think I'd be able to teach you"

"Use the one thing I can't argue against. Clever move." She pulled the knife out and walked back to him determined to get further away from the edge of the target if nothing else.

"It's true. I can't teach you something I have no experience in. And fighting and throwing with the depth perception of someone with two working eyes isn't something I have experience in"

"Like I said, clever move. See if I beat the eggs for you tonight."

He looked away, occupying himself with checking and starting to sharpen one of the blades. Lucy smiled and threw the knife again. Once more it stayed in the target although it was still perilously close to the edge.

"Any tips on not throwing it so far to the left?" Lucy asked. "I know you said I need to move with it and follow through. Plus you have that whole blind in one eye thing going for you but I'm going the same way every time."

"Let me watch you again?" He looked up. Lucy suddenly felt self conscious but tried to follow the 4th rule and relax as well as being hyper aware of the position her body was in and threw the knife.

"You're flicking left. Just as you let go your hand tilts so it flicks slightly to the left"

"Ok." She flexed her fingers as she once more walked up to the target and pulled out the knife. The marks were all fairly close together, which she supposed was a good thing. At least she was consistently making the same mistake. "So try not to flick at all or compensate and flick to the right?"

"Try not to flick. Or flick your wrist forwards"

"Can you show me again?"

"Sure" he picked up the knife on the side and demonstrated what he meant, hitting the centre of a second target further away

Lucy rolled her eyes at his showing off but couldn't help but be impressed with his ability; with skills like that he could back up his words. As he had thrown the knife she had paid special interest to how his hand had moved and tried to copy his once more. This time the knife clattered to the floor again but it was slightly further away from the previous cluster of attempts.

"It's combining all the bits together that's tricky. You were hitting the target before so mix that with what I've just shown you"

"Right." Lucy was determined to use the time left with Sam to get every tip possible on how to efficiently and dangerously use knives to the best of her ability. Hitting closer to the centre of the target was all well and good but it was stationary, large and only 10ft away from her.

**A/N: By my reckoning there's another 2 or so weeks worth of Lucy and Sam fluff and cuteness and then we're back to the episodes**


	53. Chapter 53 - Sam, Part 6 - FULL CHAPTER!

**A/N: SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY. HAVE THE ACTUAL BEGINNING TO THE CHAPTER AS WELL! (Which makes it a much longer one)**

"Ahh shitting fucking hell." Lucy cursed as the knife fell the to floor after slicing through her wrist. "Buggering fuck." Sam had been teaching her and making her repeat the same drills for 3 days now and although it wasn't the first time she had cut herself it was definitely the worst one yet.

"Maybe we should get you some plastic ones to learn with?" Sam teased, reaching for the bandages

"Oh ha ha." Lucy snarked at him, she flicked her wrist to give him the finger and then swore loudly again.

"Ianto will kill me if you keep getting hurt like this. And it's not even my fault this time"

"You gave me the harder drills." Lucy tried to defend herself but knew it wasn't going to work even before she tried. "I'm not going to be able to get the bandage on tight enough, can you..."

"Stay still and I will." Sam rolled his eyes as he bandages her wrists. "I'm not going to say I didn't make similar mistakes in the beginning. But..."

"But you at least have the defence of being half blind. I just casually decided to forget how to hold the damn knife and attacked myself rather than the awkwardly places target" She hissed in pain as Sam tightened the bandage.

"Yeah, in my line of work being half blind isn't much of a defence. 'I'm sorry I missed when I tried to murder your king, you see I'm half blind'"

Lucy laughed and flexed her wrist under the bandage. "I dunno, I'm sure it's the kind of thing Gwen would try to say."

"I'd be caught and tried and executed fairly quickly"

"Ok, good point, well made. Now we just need to work out a great story that has me looking like the hero when we explain to Ianto what happened. Aliens are too obvious with this job, so I'm thinking something like a demon invasion."

"Ooooor we tell him the truth and you stop messing up"

"But demons. Or the portal to your world opened up again and a dragon came through attacked us, knocking you out and then flew back through. Because I had been injured I was unable to get you back through the portal in time before it closed. Or sea turtles." she added "We only ever say it was sea turtles with memory erasing guns"

"Shut up" he snapped, "Just do your drills and stop mucking about"

"Sorry." Lucy winced knowing she had pushed it too far, she wondered if it was because Tosh seemed to be doing better in her calculations and Jack had given her permission to manipulate the rift in a practice run later that day. If nothing exploded then Sam could be gone by the end of the week.

She picked up the knife from the ground and quickly wiped her blood off it and checked she hadn't damaged it. Sam had moved the target so she had to slightly curve her throw which was what had caused her to slice her wrist in the first place.

Sam leaned against the wall behind her, folding his arms across his chest, "This needs to become second nature. Split second timings and reactions"

"And not letting people get away cause I have to stop and bandage my wrist, I know." She sighed, took a deep breath and threw the knife again flickering her wrist as she let go like she would when making stones skip. It hit the out of the two rings on the target but would still cause enough damage to at least slow the target down.

He smiled slightly, "Exactly. You're getting better."

"I mean the target is still stationary but definitely improving." She agreed taking the second knife and doing the same, this time it hit slightly further out on the edge of the ring. "Maybe I spoke too soon."

He laughed, "Just focus"

Lucy rolled her eyes but picked up the third knife, this time she took a little longer in her throw but it hit inside the centre ring. The fourth knife was next to the third and she moved from where she had been standing to retrieve them and repeat the drill.

Sam's grin widened as he watched her, "You're improving. Oh and by the way, even I wouldn't stand half a chance against a dragon. And the lack of smouldering wreckage would be a giveaway that we were lying"

"What if it was a very small dragon? A small adorable dragon and I only got scratched cause I was giving it a hug." Lucy returned to where Sam had told her to stand and once again threw the first knife.

"Even newly hatched they're fairly big. To be old enough to fly... yeah it would have burnt down the place and probably killed us both"

"A dragon with dwarfism?" Lucy asked only half jokingly, throwing the second and third knives in quick succession. The third one was slightly outside the target but the second one had hit it's mark. "Ok, so no dragons. We're back to demons or sea turtles."

"Definitely no dragons. I've seen enough dragon fire for a lifetime of nightmares"

She threw the fourth one and hit the cross. "Sea turtles would put out the fire. I just think that if we say something _that_ bizarre and confusing they'll spend so long trying to work out the story that my wrist will have healed."

"Let's go with sea turtles"

"Sea turtles it is then." Lucy laughed and was about to go retrieve the knives again when the light turned orange. "I suppose it's time."

He glanced at the light and sighed, "Damn. And I was having fun"

"Me too, just don't forget all we say is sea turtles and then I'll be in the clear." She pulled the knives from the target. "Let's go then, and we'll have to give up this spot after anyway. Gwen hasn't practised this week."

"Explain nothing. Sea turtles or bust"

"Sea turtles." Lucy nodded with a laugh as she shut the door behind them.

Ianto was waiting for them at the top of the stairs and immediately noticed the new bandage on Lucy's wrist and the blood red marks on it.

"Sea turtles." Lucy said before he could even ask the question. "What does Jack want us for?"

"Tosh thinks she's ready for the practice run. Sea turtles?"

"Definitely sea turtles." Sam confirmed with a knowing nod, "Practice run?"

"She's going to try opening the rift and throwing something through. Obviously we can't tell where the something ends up, but if nothing explodes she should be on the right track." Ianto explained further. "Jack wants to make sure you know the risks of the practice run before we do anything and Tosh wants to remind you that the chances still aren't great. These sea turtles, did they have knives by any chance?"

"You think I know how the sea turtles minds work and how they attack their prey?" Lucy asked in mock shock.

"What's the point? Call us up to watch and make sure nothing explodes? All I care about is getting home, I really don't want to have to sit through the failed attempts"

"Because if its not a failed attempt you could leave within the next couple of hours." Jack said joining in their conversation.

Sam turned and looked at Jack, "Is that likely?"

"Well the chances of things exploding are pretty low. Whether it ends where you want it to end is another matter. Tosh reckons she's got the co-ordinates correct from this side but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to other universes. We barely scratch the surface when it comes to our knowledge of the rift and this world, let alone yours.

And talking of scratches, Lucy?"

"Sea turtles." Lucy said quickly, looking over at Sam.

"Sea turtles" Sam echoed softly, his gaze fixed on the ground as he thought through Jack's words

"Listen, Sam and I are still scared by our vicious attack from sea turtles. Maybe you should give him a minute to get over what happened, his world clearly doesn't have anything like them." Lucy said gesturing for the others to move away and give Sam space to come to terms with what he had just been told. "He'll come when he's ready. In the mean time I need to remind Gwen to train this week and that she had plenty of time to get into the range even with the pair of us in most of the time every day."

"Thanks" Sam said quietly, glancing at Lucy

"No problem." Lucy replied. "You take all the time you need to get over the sea turtles. I never knew they could be so vicious myself and I've lived in two worlds with them." She continued to joke about it, not sure if she was doing that to help Sam or to help herself. "Fancy a coffee?"

"What if it doesn't work? What if something goes wrong?"

"Then Tosh has exploded another bit of tech that either Ianto or I will end up doing the paperwork to and she'll try again."

"And the next time and the next time. Until you think it works and then it doesn't. I'm not a pessimistic kind of man but the future of everyone I care about is dependent on... guesswork"

"It's dependent on Tosh being persistent and good at her job. And if there's one thing that Tosh is good at, it's doing everything she can to solve a puzzle. I'm not saying she's perfect or that this solution isn't perfect but she wouldn't be doing this if she didn't think it would work. So the chances still might not be great but they have to be higher than before or they wouldn't have told you."

"I... I'm going out" Sam turned, wanting to leave

Lucy nodded and didn't say anything else, glaring at Owen who opened his mouth to speak.

The cog door opened as the pair neared it and Lucy hung back.

"Just let us know when you're ready yeah? Or do you want us to do the test without you?"

He paused, "I can't watch it fail. I can't let myself get my hopes up and watch it fail. To you, getting back to the man I love is a logic puzzle with a liberal amount of guesswork."

"Ok, well I'll let you know how it goes." Lucy nodded, knowing she wouldn't make him change his mind and quickly ignoring that this could mean a lot more to her too if she let it. "Have you got the keys to the flat and some money?"

He nodded, "I... I'll see you later"

"See ya Sam." She watched as the cog wheeled shut behind him and walked over to where the others were all standing by Tosh's work station. Ianto handed her a mug which was filled with hot chocolate instead of coffee and gave her a small smile.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Sam?" Lucy called as she opened the door awkwardly due to her having to balance a box on her hip and a couple of full shopping bags. "You here?"

Jerked from his thoughts, Sam's hand moved to his belt and he had a moment of confusion before realising exactly where he was, "Yeah. Through here" he replied from the lounge

"Ianto's just helping Tosh tidy up, so it's just me." She put the keys away and allowed the door to swing shut behind her and walked into the lounge, dumping the bags on the side, passing Sam the box and slumping into the sofa.

"So I presume it didn't work" he replied, taking the box from her

"I've got you a present." Lucy replied, not answering the question. "At least pretend to notice it."

He looked down at the box, "How badly did it not work?"

"We had a few small fires." Lucy admitted.

"Did the sea turtles help?"

"Well we no longer have any fires although that's probably due to Ianto being prepared with the fire extinguisher than invisible deadly sea turtles that spurt water."

He nodded, "I... I tried not to get my hopes up about it"

"You may as well open your present." Lucy said with a small smirk. "I mean any day with a present can't be completely wasted."

He swallowed and slowly opened it and Lucy couldn't stop the small grin that appeared on her face. Inside the box was a small Victoria sponge with blue icing and '51% and 48hours' written on it in white lettering.

Sam frowned at the cake before looking up at her, "What?"

"Just what it says. Tosh reckons she can get the chances of you arriving in the right place to 51% and wants to do it in 48hours once the cables have been replaced."

"More guesswork?"

"Less guesswork than before. She'll give it one more go but reckons she just needed extra and sturdier cables to use all that power. But if you're ready to try than Jack says we can cope with a small number of fires."

He looked back down at the cake, "Does this... even matter to you?"

"Course it does. But this is still more than a bit risky Sam. We know what it's like when you disappear under the rifts own steam, for it to be supercharged and directed by us... we don't know if you'll end up where you're supposed to end up all we know right now is we burnt through cables and the box of apples all disappeared."

"Guesswork. Puzzles and guesswork. That's all any of this has been to you. If I get home, great. If I'm vaporised, oh well, onto the next puzzle to solve"

"That's not what it is Sam." Lucy tried to explain, once again ignoring what this meant to her on a more personal level, he might be able to take that risk but she wasn't. At least, she didn't think so. "It's easier to think like that, because being responsible for lost people is hard. If Tosh actually thinks about what it means for you, then the fear of failing will be too strong. That 49% will be more important than the 51%"

"I'm scared I'll never see him again" he said softly, "Even if it gets me out of here, I could end up anywhere... and he'll be waiting for me"

"We're going to give you a file with all the information we have as well as Tosh's calculations. That way if it doesn't work wherever you end up will have a starting point, chances are if it doesn't work you'll end up in another world with another Torchwood. You're not just a puzzle Sam, you're a friend and that's what makes this hard. We want this to succeed for you."

He laughed bitterly, "Really? My world didn't have one. The chance of getting another world with another Torchwood isn't a big one. And the chance of them helping me on top of that?"

"Best theory is if it doesn't work you'll be pulled towards another rift and if there's another Torchwood 3 there they'll help. If not they'll want to fix the problem just to prove they're better than us. It's not perfect Sam, but right now it's the best chance you've got. Tosh could work on it longer but wouldn't be able to increase the chance much more cause she can't see what's happening on the other side."

He put the cake to one side and drew his legs up to his chest, "I hate it. I used to know the risks, be able to calculate everything. And I'm relying on other people's guesswork to get me back to the people I care about most"

"Well you've got 48 hours. The bags are full of baking stuff." Lucy got up and stretched. "I'm going to go change my bandage and see how the scar from the turtles is doing. I'll text Ianto and ask him to pick something up for dinner so you can have the kitchen to yourself."

"Okay"

"Just... just don't be annoyed with Tosh because she's thinking about this as a problem to solve. It's who she is."

"I want to go home more than anything. If it doesn't work, I have nothing"

"That's not Tosh's fault though." She shrugged. "I'm not going to preach at you and you've got every right to be angry. But maybe you shouldn't argue with the designated driver. I'll see you later." Lucy walked off pulling her phone from her pocket and sending a quick text to Ianto to fill him in, the cake was still sitting on the side of the sofa.

"I never said it was her fault," He snapped. "You're all talking about my life as a puzzle. Not just her, all of you. So yes, I'm angry. I have nothing else!"

Lucy could feel her anger grow and did her best to stifle it, clenching her hands into tight fists not caring that it tugged on where she had sliced her wrist earlier and reopened the wound.

"We're doing all we can the only way we know how." She replied not quite managing to keep her anger out of her voice.

"And that's by completely ignoring the fact that I am real and totally terrified. Good to know."

"If you want someone to pity you, go to Gwen. If you want someone to solve the problem, go to Tosh. We all know that you are scared Sam but that doesn't change the fact that the best way for her to try and solve this is to just look at the problem. Ianto didn't have to offer you our spare room."

He stared at her, his eyes cold, "You think I want pity? At least_ I_ am _trying_ to get home"

Lucy stared at him for a second, honestly unsure what she was going to do or say in response to that. For a split second she thought she would manage to keep control of her anger and walk away without shouting or breaking anything, acting like a rational adult. That thought quickly disappeared though and she pulled Cecil out and shot the sofa (part of her still thinking rationally enough to realise that a hole in the wall couldn't be explained).

"I'm going to go to my room and pretend that you didn't say that." Her eyes equally cold as his. "Tomorrow morning I'll go into the hub and spend the day working with Tosh to give you the best possible opportunity to get home. You can spend the day doing anything you want, frankly I don't care. But if you ever suggest that I don't care about Becky again, ever, it won't be the sofa I'll be shooting."

"If I'm still here in 48 hours you have my permission."

"If you're still here in 48 hours and you _**dare**_ to blame it on us, you'll be finding another place to live." Lucy retorted and turned away and walked out of the lounge, gun still in hand and her fingers resting on the safety ready to take it off and shoot again in a second.

"Or not. As seems to be the case."

Lucy didn't even pause but her fingers tightened around the gun for a second and kept on walking into the hallway and to her and Ianto's room where she punched the wall.

Sam grabbed his jacket from the back of the sofa and pulled the keys to the flat from the pocket, slamming them on the nearest table before leaving. Itching for a fight

Ianto stepped out of the way, deftly moving the pizza boxes so Sam wouldn't knock them over and let himself into the now open flat.

Sam sat in the furthest corner on the dirty floor, his ankles crossed and his arms resting on his knees. He was stone cold sober and his own current thought was that he didn't care who came to get him as long as it wasn't Lucy. In fact he'd probably be fine if no one came for him at all.

Ianto walked through the police station and rolled his eyes at the sight of PC Andy Davidson on desk duty, honestly that was just his luck.

"Hi Andy."

"Oh, hi Ianto. You here to get Sam then?"

"Yeah I thought I'd let Lucy sleep." He replied, it was a lie. Lucy had slept worse than normal that night and he hadn't been able to find out what it was that the pair had fought about. But she had steadfastly said there was no chance of her going out to pick him and she didn't care if they left him there until Tosh was ready to try for good, even if that took longer than the prescribed 48 hours.

"Lucky her, eh? I'll just go get him for you."

Sam didn't move. Didn't want to. He just stared, his gaze fixed blankly on the far corner of the room

Andy rattled the door as he unlocked it. "Up and attam. You're out of here, I called Torchwood as soon I saw you."

"Shit" Sam muttered

Andy opened the door wide and waited for Sam to move from where he was sat. "Come on, I'm sure Ianto wants to go to bed just as much as you do." He said when it looked like Sam wasn't going to move. Reluctantly, Sam stood up. He didn't particularly care either way, figuring there would be no point trying to talk to Ianto about what had happened.

"Anyone would think you like our cells." Andy muttered. "Honestly, you Torchwood lot are all as weird as each other."

"I am nothing to do with them. As soon as I can get out of this place I will"

"Oh so I'll just stick you back in there shall I and tell Ianto he had a wasted journey? If he cared enough about you to get up in the middle of the night then you must be something to do with them."

"I'm just their latest puzzle. Regardless of what happens next, I doubt you'll ever see me again" Sam let out a long sigh. Andy stared at him and decided it was better not to ask, he'd bring it up the next time Gwen had the time to see him.

"Either way, Ianto's waiting for you and I have work to do. So if you could kindly just piss off, I'd be very grateful."

Sam glanced at him and nodded, "Pissing off now."

"Good." Andy shrugged at Ianto who was still patiently waiting and had raised an eyebrow at the sight of a sullen Sam. He nodded a goodbye and then returned to the game of solitaire he had been playing on the computer.

Sam didn't even look at Ianto as he went up to him. There was a bruise already forming on his jaw and he had a split lip

"After you, it appears I can't trust you to do a runner on the way to the car." Ianto gestured for Sam to go in front and thanked Andy and the other officer.

Sam shrugged, still not looking up as he led the way out of the station

"I'm guessing you're not going to explain why there's a bullet hole in my sofa." Ianto asked as they walked to the car.

"Lucy managed not to shoot me. Unfortunately"

"Well that was more than Lucy told me. Although that doesn't really tell me anything that I couldn't work out on my own. Get in."

He got in the car, shifting so his back was as turned to Ianto as he could manage

Ianto sighed, there was no getting around the fact it was going to be an uncomfortable five minute drive. He turned the key and pulled out of the space he had parked in.

"It'd probably be easier for Torchwood to cover up Lucy shooting me than it is me getting arrested" Sam said quietly after a moment

Ianto didn't say anything but gave Sam a 'look' that asked if he really believed that Lucy would shoot him.

"Is there really no one in this place that you can have an honest hard-truths conversation with?"

"Depends what kind of conversation you want."

"I'm scared. I want to go home. Everyone is telling me that it might not work but that I just need to believe. All I've seen is just... guesswork. And no one has ever given me an honest to gods answer whether there's a hope of this working. And I'm angry about that. And I'm angry that I might never get to propose to Cale. And that he's out there waiting for me to come home. I promised him I'd be home by sundown. I'm worried and scared and angry. And I do NOT blame you guys, I just... I want solid answers"

"Tosh reckons it could be as high as 51%, the chance of you getting home. How long it would have been we don't know. It's a time and space vortex so theoretically you can just put the time in no time will have passed. Right now you're looking at about a 45% chance that it'll get you to the right universe and around the same day, give or take a week or so. Anything more than that and we can't say." Ianto replied, not taking his eyes off the road. "We've all been doing everything we can to help, even if sometimes all that means is making Tosh coffee to keep her awake and remind her that she has to sleep and wake her up the minute the computers stopped running whatever program she's plugged into it."

"And while we're being honest, fancy explaining why Lucy shot the sofa?"

"Thank you" he said quietly, "I'm so tired of worrying. And being told it'll be fine." He swallowed, "I... I was angry. She told me that if I wanted pity I should go to Gwen when I wanted someone to actually take me seriously. I..."

Ianto could tell that he didn't want to admit to whatever had been said between the pair of them. "You _do_ know that Lucy's spent the past week keeping Owen away from studying the difference in your bodies, doing everything to help Tosh and taking over the majority of her work that she's capable of doing to make sure she's got more time to work on getting you home. As well as keeping you company and trying not to let you get homesick too much."

"She shouldn't have bothered" he muttered, "Clearly she's far too good for my company"

"We're talking about the same Lucy that shot the sofa right? The one whose been joining you in baking at night because she wakes up screaming?" Ianto shook his head and turned the corner into the road looking for a space to park the car, luckily because it was so late/early the space he had left was still available.

"And when she was done baking, she got to curl up with the person she loves."

"Do you want me to apologise for that?" Ianto turned the engine off but didn't move to get out.

Sam shook his head, "I don't have anyone. I need to go home because there is nothing for me here. I don't want apologies or pity, I just... need Cale to sooth away the monster in me"

"Which we're doing all we can to make happen." Ianto said still not getting out of the car. "The only person who has any idea about what you are going through is Lucy, the rest of us can only guess, but we all know that it's not nice and it's not easy. Which is why we've been trying to send you back, taking out your fear on us isn't going to help or make it happen any quicker."

"I'm a monster" Sam whispered, "And I can't lose him too"

"Well for the record, the person I've got to know isn't a monster." Ianto said with a sigh and opened the door. "Let's get back in the flat and go to bed"

He shook his head, "I've killed. And enjoyed killing. Good people have died at my hand. I've always followed orders because if I don't even more people die." He looked up at him, "And I should feel repulsed but I don't. I look back and I don't feel anything. Not after the first time I didn't listen"

Ianto shut the car door, this conversation was obviously going to continue.

"Jack was a con man before he came to Torchwood, he was an assassin for Torchwood when he started, was forced to do every suicide mission going and has killed more than his fair share of people, fought in every war since the 1800s. But right now, he's a good man. Those things from the past, they're important and he'll never forget them. But currently he's good man."

"I'm just saying that we're not trying to send an assassin back home, we're sending a good hunter back to his baker."

"It was so easy. To go out there and get into a fight. It was easy and felt good. And I don't want to be that man any more"

"So don't be. Go back into the house and bake so you can help Cale more when you get home. Not that it's that easy. You got into a fight because you were angry, I'll spend tomorrow evening looking for a new sofa because Lucy was angry too."

"I'm better when I'm home. He makes me a better man. I want to be the man he deserves. But I still see the monster in the mirror. And I wanted Lucy to shoot me. I wanted her to see the monster too"

"Well a hole in the sofa says she doesn't. The fact she hasn't slept yet would suggest the same."

"She should. She wants to learn from me to defend people. I just use those skills to kill. For the sake of killing. I need Cale because he sees the monster and loves me anyway" Sam looked at Ianto, "I butchered my way through life and he loves me anyway."

"I've not had enough coffee to have this conversation and I get the feeling I'd never change your mind either. Neither of us think you're a monster, in fact we both counted you as a friend. But for now I'm going to go to bed, you can spend the night in the hose or you can go roam on your own, but I won't be impressed if I have to pick you up from a police cell again." He opened the car door. "You coming in?"

"Is Lucy going to kill me in my sleep?"

"I highly doubt it." Ianto gave a small smile sensing that they were on more comfortable ground

"Must try harder next time." Sam smiled slightly back, "thank you. For everything you've done for me"

"You coming in then?"

Sam nodded "yeah. Yeah I'm coming"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy walked into the kitchen the next morning steadfastly not looking at Sam as she turned the kettle on and stuck some bread into the toaster. Sam sat at the kitchen table, his head down so his hair hung over his face as he absent-mindedly picked at the scabs on his knuckles

Moving around the kitchen not looking at the table in the middle was harder than Lucy had previously thought, she couldn't help but catch sight of Sam and felt slightly sorry for him, he didn't look like he had slept much, if at all, last night like her. But then she remembered what he had said and her resolve hardened and she placed the mugs on the side harder than she needed to, a loud thud broke the silence.

Sam flinched at the noise, hesitating for a long moment before softly murmuring, "say the word and I'm gone"

"I'm not one to back down on my word." Lucy replied as she made herself a coffee, still not looking at him "We said you could live here until you got home or until you wanted to leave. That hasn't changed, no matter what you said." The toaster pinged that it was done and she pulled the bread out and covered it in chocolate spread. "Although I wouldn't have picked you up from the police station last night."

"That doesn't change the fact you want me to leave. And I didn't want you to pick me up last night." He went quiet for a long moment, "you've seen who I am now"

"I've seen you can be a bastard who knows just what buttons to press. And like I said, I don't go back on my word." She looked at him properly for the first time and passed him the second mug of coffee.

He looked into the mug, "I don't understand why you didn't try to go home. I never said you didn't love or care for her. But I am going to keep fighting no matter what the cost."

Lucy didn't reply, she didn't tell him that it was because she couldn't bare to fail, because some part of her thought that Becky was better off without her, because she was selfish and needed this chance, because, because, because of an endless number of reasons. She drained her mug and picked up the toast.

"Tell Ianto I've gone in early. I've got some paperwork to catch up on and I said I'd help Tosh all day. Don't feel like you need to come in and join me." What she really wanted to do was go back to bed and curl and hide from the world, but that wasn't her way. No matter how good that sounded she knew that she wouldn't be able to get to sleep anyway so she may as well do something useful and bury herself in work.

"But I know you love her." Sam turned to watch her, looking up for the first time, "I don't understand but you must have your reasons. I-" he swallowed, his voice shaking, "The bastard you saw last night only scratched the surface. And it might be selfish of me, but Cale is the only person who has loved me for all of me, not just despite me. And I can't let him go. Not ever"

"Well maybe that's the difference." Lucy didn't turn around. She wasn't sure if she would have the strength to say this if she was saying it to someone instead of just out loud. "Becky, was... is... my world, but I was all she had. I had to be strong. I know I'm a selfish coward for not fighting to go back to her. I don't need you to remind me of that."

She grabbed her leather jacket off the side and shoved Cecil into his holster and left, letting the door slam behind her; trying not to think about what she'd just admitted.

He hesitated for half a second before pushing himself out of the chair and following her, "You think that? You think you're selfish for not going back?"

"I **know** I'm selfish for not going back. That little girl might never know what happened to me, might grow up thinking that I ran out on her and was just as useless as our waste of space father. She depended on me and I wasn't good enough. I need to get to work, like I said. I've got paperwork to do. May as well be useful rather than staying her and feeling sorry for myself."

He swallowed, "Then you go instead of me"

Lucy stared at him, forgetting her resolution to ignore him and pretend that this conversation wasn't happening.

"What the hell are you on about Sam?"

"You think you're selfish for staying? Do something about it. You still have a chance to go home. I know I'm being selfish by trying to go back. I love my boyfriend with all I have, but I know I'm holding him back. I know that no matter how much he loves the monster in me, it still frightens him."

"Don't be stupid, you go back to Cale. I can live here, I have been living her for the past 18 months. Besides all of Tosh's calculations are based on the data received from when you arrived. If I was to take your place right now it would me explaining to Cale where you were. I'll survive."

"Tosh doesn't seem like the kind of person who wouldn't have collected the data when you arrived" He pointed out, "He'd understand. He'd move on... eventually. He knows I've lived a dangerous life"

"You're being stupid. In 48 hours you're going home and Cale will give you the biggest of hugs and then complain about the lack of rabbits. Just... just leave it Sam."

"I'm sorry." He said softly, "I'm sorry you thought... I know what it's like to lose the people you love. And I'm sorry I made you think I... thought you didn't care about her"

"She'll move on. Eventually. I've been gone nearly 2 years she probably thinks I'm dead anyway. She'll have her own life. No need for me to ruin it. I'll..." She didn't know what she was going to say so just decided against saying anything. "I'll see you later." Lucy pulled her jacket tight against the cold Welsh wind and started to walk away.

Sam watched her. He didn't want to let her go like this but didn't know what he could do or say. She didn't turn round, although she could feel Sam's gaze on her back. Damn him for making her talk, it had almost been easier when she had been angry at him because then she didn't have to think about what he had said and the truth behind it. She tried to rekindle the emotions that had made her shoot the sofa but she felt too tired to be able to do so.

Sam let out a long sigh and eventually turned away, going back inside. Ianto was in the kitchen, making his own cup of coffee.

"I heard the door slam"

"Shockingly enough, she still hates me" Sam said grabbing his coffee

Ianto raised an eyebrow and did up the buttons on his suit jacket. "I think the only person Lucy really hates is her dad, and herself at times. She doesn't hate Gwen so I doubt it's possible for her to hate you."

"I'm good at bringing out the worst in people"

"So's Torchwood. Lucy holds a grudge but she doesn't hate you."

"She should. And I shouldn't go home"

"So because you think she hates you, you don't want to go home? That hardly makes sense"

"No. Separate things. But I... she... I'm selfish for wanting to go back."

"You're doing what's best for you. Nothing wrong with that."

"I'm not sure it's what's best for him any more"

"Well I doubt not giving him the choice and staying in another universe is best for him." Ianto started to clean his mug. "I'll give her some time to get in before I follow her, she won't want any attention or anything for a while. Give her time to put her mask back on."

"It might be" He said softly, staring at his coffee, "I'm not good for him"

"Lucy thought that about me once. I know Gwen mentioned the story." Ianto didn't want to keep comparing things with Sam to things with Lucy but he felt at this time it was justified. "Thought I should be with Jack so broke up with me. All that happened was we were both miserable for 4 months. I figure you should at least give him a choice and yourself the chance to change your mind and that means being in the same universe."

"I scare him. I know I do. How can I justify going back to him, knowing I'm going to make him afraid again"

"Like I said, he deserves that choice, he must know who were and who you are know. Its not fair to take the choice away from him."

"I... I do know that. But..."

"Don't take the choice away from the pair of you by staying here to punish yourself."

"I feel as though I deserve it somehow" Ianto didn't say anything, there was nothing for him to say. "More than anything... I just want the person I love to be happy. So many people I've known aren't"

"Doesn't sound like you're giving yourself the chance to be happy either."

"I don't deserve it. I know I don't"

"Like I said last night I doubt I'll change your mind. But you should know that I don't agree with you. I didn't think I deserved happiness for ages, especially not after Canary Wharf and even when Lucy got here and all she did was try to help. It took ages to get out of there and Lucy helped, in the same way Cale probably helps you. It wasn't quick or easy but you can come out the other end, just need to leave the possibility open instead of hiding yourself away."

"I'm scared of screwing everything up" he admitted quietly. Ianto couldn't help the small smile that graced his lips.

"I'm pretty sure that makes you the same as every other person in this universe"

He looked up at him, "I don't think I can survive in this universe. But I'm scared to go back"

"Well you've got less than 48 hours to decide. You may as well spend today enjoying bits of the city instead of being cooped up underground in the Hub."

He nodded, "I don't know where to go"

"Take some money and see what there is to see. Keep walking in one direction until you get bored and then walk in another"

"That... sounds like a good idea"

A/N SORRY AGAIN this should make more sense now. Thanks to Momochan77 who let me know that I'm an idiot


	54. Chapter 54 - Sam, Part 7 (Going home)

Lucy would have been quite happy to spend the night at work, she had tried to find an excuse to stay behind even later but Ianto wouldn't hear of it.

Tosh had been glad to have an extra hand in the morning but had quickly got bored of it as well and Jack had banished her to the sewers with Owen to get some weevil hunting done so she could at least do something useful.

After having had the day to think about it she knew that Sam hadn't meant what he'd said and was annoyed with herself for losing her temper and shooting the sofa. Lucy was also regretting admitting what she had that morning and opening that Pandora's Box. She didn't have any more time to think about it though as Ianto had already put the key in the door.

Sam was curled up on the intact end of the sofa, his gaze locked on the floor as he listened to them enter

Ianto rolled his eyes at his girlfriend shifting awkwardly on her feet in the doorway of their own lounge.

"Oh for god sake you spent the whole of the car trying to work out how to apologise. Sam, Lucy is sorry she got angry and shot the sofa behind you yesterday. Lucy, Sam is sorry that he said something stupid yesterday he's worried about getting home to Cale. I'm going to stick the kettle on and work out what we can have for dinner."

Sam looked up at them, his eyes wide, "I... I was just... angry..." he mumbled, "I didn't think through what I was saying"

"Yeah... I... um... I shouldn't have lost my temper... Sorry."

"I deserved it... I'm scared to go home. When... when you had the gun out I thought that... that if I got you angry enough I wouldn't have to make the choice..."

"At least you're doing it. And I was never going to actually shoot you. I don't think so anyway." She mumbled the last bit and gave a small smile. "Can I um... can I come in from the doorway now?"

He smiled slightly and nodded, "It's your flat"

"Yeah but still..." She didn't move from where she was standing.

"Yes. Come on"

"Thanks." She moved automatically to sit on the other side of the sofa and then remembered that it wouldn't be wise to do so due to the bullet hole, instead she perched on the arm rest carefully trying not to put her weight anywhere near the bullet hole.

"Its a good thing I earn enough to replace the sofa. That maybe wasn't the wisest thing I could have done."

"Wiser than actually shooting me? Probably"

"Yeah, I wasn't too far gone to shoot you or the wall. Walls are more difficult to replace. The sofa seemed the next best thing." She was trying to stay focused on the argument the happened the night before and not the conversation they'd had that morning.

He nodded, "I know. Thanks"

"For not shooting you? You're welcome. Did you... do anything decent today?"

"I um... yeah. Went shopping"

"Cardiff didn't overwhelm you then?" She asked, the awkwardness was obvious in the room and she noticed that Ianto was purposefully staying away.

He shook his head, "I wanted to explore a bit. I was... okay"

"Find anything good?" He nodded and smiled. "Well that's... that's good." She sighed. "Of course it's good because finding good things can't be bad. Sorry, this shouldn't be so damn awkward."

"I um... got you something..." He looked away

"Ok... as ways of breaking the awkwardness that wasn't going to be my suggestion." She laughed and automatically shifted her weight to get more comfortable, there was an ominous creak from below her but seeing as the sofa was going to have to be replaced anyway she didn't worry too much about it.

He reached over the side of the sofa and picked up a bag, "Um... I know I couldn't get you a real dragon but..." he held out the bag. Lucy grabbed the it, unsure what she would find but couldn't stop herself from laughing when she saw a red Welsh dragon stuffed toy. It was something you could get in most tourist shops and yet she loved it.

"Thank You Sam. He's beautiful, did you give him a name?"

"It reminded me of Lilit, my own dragon..." he admitted, "But it's your job to name it"

"You never said you had your own dragon! Just kept telling me that they were dangerous."

"They are dangerous. Lilit was... my friend but even she's gone. Succumbed to stronger dragons." He swallowed, "Dragons have taken... everything from me"

"Can I... can I call him Cale?" She asked quietly.

He stared at her before grinning softly, "I'd like that"

"Cale it is then. Thank you Sam, this means a lot and I don't think I actually said sorry for loosing my temper last night, Ianto apologised for me. So I'm sorry for loosing my temper last night."

"I... sorry for pushing you too far"

"It's not your fault I lost me temper. I was already walking away when I shot the sofa."

"I kept pushing you though"

"You've both apologised get over it." Ianto called from the kitchen and Lucy stuck her tongue out in his direction.

"You've stayed in the kitchen out of the way because you didn't want to be involved in this. So stay out."

"I just thought I'd tell you dinner will be ready in 10 minutes, we've got risotto."

Sam grinned softly, looking away

"Listen Ianto may be my idiot but you'll get back to yours tomorrow" Lucy said noticing the look on Sam's face.

"I... hope so"

"Well Tosh got annoyed with me trying to help today, said she had it all under control."

"Would she say that anyway though?"

"She'd tell me to piss off, but she wouldn't say the same to Jack and Ianto. They both know loads about the rift. Frankly once she got the cables changed I'm pretty sure I saw her go back to working on her translation program."

He nodded slightly in understanding

"I'm going to go help Ianto in the kitchen." Lucy said being careful as she stood up not to cause any more damage to the broken sofa. "Give you time to get your head straight. Come and join us when you're ready."  
Sam nodded again and Lucy left him to his own thoughts.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy shook in Ianto's arms as she pulled herself from the last of Morpheus' grasp. She hadn't dreamt of the dark and endlessly falling for a while, not like that. She was pretty sure she could hear movement in the kitchen and knew that it was probably Sam making more cakes, normally she'd just go get a drink and get on with some work or try and get back to sleep. But that would mean going into the kitchen and seeing Sam. He might have forgiven her for almost shooting him the night before but she still felt guilty.

"Go get a drink Lu." Ianto whispered. "Sam's not going to mind"

"I know but..."

"Only an idiot would say anything about yesterday right now. Sam's not an idiot." He gently pushed at her. "You're not going to get back to sleep for a while."

"I hate you and your logic."

"I love you too."

She gave him a small kiss and got up, wrapping her dressing gown around her and trying to give herself more time to get control of her still shaking body before she went into the kitchen to join Sam, grabbing her laptop as she went.

Sam opened the fridge and stared into it, his mind going totally blank as he stood there. He'd gone to bed but hadn't slept at all before getting up to do more baking, wanting to occupy his mind

"I bought some more stuff earlier by way of an apology." Lucy said quietly from the kitchen door.

Sam jumped and spun around to face her, grabbing the first thing he could out of the fridge in an instinctive defence, despite how unthreatening a carton of milk actually was

"Sorry." Lucy raised one shaking hand in surrender, the other still holding tightly to her laptop. "I just wanted to get a drink before I started getting some work done. I'm behind on the paperwork" She didn't say it was because she had spent the past two weeks keeping an eye on Sam, that wouldn't be fair on him.

He blinked at her for a long moment before nodding and putting the milk down, "I... sorry. You surprised me"

"I didn't mean to." She lowered her hand. "Can I have that milk before you use it?"

"I uh... wasn't even going to use it" he admitted, "Just the first thing I could pick up"

"I'd ask if you were ok." Lucy said putting the laptop on the table and deftly taking the milk, she'd finally got her shaking hands under control. "But that seems hypocritical"

"I can't sleep" he said softly, "Too wound up"

"I got some sleep before... well before." She poured herself a large glass of milk. "Do you want anything?"

He shook his head, "I can't... I just can't"

"Fair enough." Lucy put the milk back down on the side, sat down at the table with the large glass and opened up her laptop. "That's completely understandable, I'll say one thing and then leave you to your baking and be completely silent if you don't want to talk. But I trust Tosh."

"I know you do"

Lucy didn't say anything else and quickly typed the relevant password into the computer whilst letting it scan her retina. She gave Sam a small smile which she knew was no where near as reassuring as she had meant it to be.

"I don't know her, Lucy. I don't really know any of you. And I'm damn scared"

"I know, and for the pittance it's worth I am sorry that this has happened to you."

"I'm sorry it happened to you too. It's not... fair to be taken from the people you care about. Whatever the reason"

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" Lucy asked seriously, looking over the laptop at him. "I can get work done in the other room."

He thought for a long moment, "No"

"Ok. Want me to get the baking stuff out for you? You're still standing next to a full and open fridge"

He nodded and closed the fridge slowly, "can... Can I have a hug...?"

Lucy nodded and immediately shut the laptop. "Of course you can." She got up and didn't quite run over to Sam but walked quicker than was needed. He looked like the perfect candidate for Peter Pan's Lost Boys and she knew that for him to ask for a hug was a big deal.

He opened his arms for her, "I'm... Exhausted. I'm so scared about everything"

"Me too." Lucy admitted as she wrapped her arms around him, as he was bigger than her she ended up being wrapped in him more. "Me too, tired and scared and not sure about anything. But I love Ianto and you love Cale and no matter what happens you're my friend."

He pressed his face into her hair, "that's all I'm sure of. I love Cale. And I want to be your friend"

"I reckon for the middle of the night that's a pretty good thing to be sure of." She said smiling and resting her head on his shoulder and tightening her hold briefly.

"I can't sleep. I want to be up and doing something and... And I'm not certain of anything"

"Apart from Cale."

"Apart from Cale. For a long time, he's been all I've been certain of"

Lucy gently pulled back, not separating from the hug completely. "I think that's ok, or if not it's at least a starting point."

"His family took me in when I had no one. He trusted me when no one else would. He found ways of helping me when anyone else would have given up"

Lucy pulled Sam back into the hug, not letting him get away. "I like him."

"He's... Everything to me"

"Which makes him pretty damn important to me." She pulled fully out of the hug. "I'll give you a minute or so while I finish up this piece of paperwork."

He looked at her and nodded, "okay. Thanks Lucy"

"Don't worry about it Sam. Like I said, you're my friend." She went back over to her laptop and opened it up again, making a big deal about looking at the screen.

He turned away, wiping his eyes roughly before getting what he needed out

She kept her eyes on the screen and the information in front of her, only flicking them up when she noticed movement as Sam once more opened the fridge and got what he needed out.

"I'll be ready in a bit. Just got to get this written up for Jack as he's going to remember that he needs it soon enough and that he never got round to it."

"Okay" he said quietly, "I just appreciate the company"

"I can stay here working on the computer if you want."

"Okay. If you're okay with that"

"If you want me to stay working on the computer and leave you to your own thing, then that's what I'll do. If you want me to piss off at any point I can do that. Or I can be the Supreme and Great Queen of the Egg Beaters

"Supreme and Great Queen of the Egg Beaters sounds good"

"Pass over the eggs, a mug and a fork then. I just need to get this sent off." She let the computer once again read her eye to allow for it to add her signature at the bottom. He collected the things together and passed them over to her.

"Thanks Sam." She took them off him, shut the lid and moved the laptop to the side so there was no risk of it being damaged.

"You sure? You don't have to help..."

"I offered." She shrugged as she cracked the first egg.

"I know you did" he said quietly, going back to mixing the other ingredients

Lucy rolled her eyes and picked up the second and third egg, cracking them in quick succession.. Sam muttered to himself as he went along, losing himself in his thoughts

Lucy got on with her job of whisking the eggs and passed them over without making a big deal of it. The rest of the next hour or so went by quietly with Lucy doing as she was directed and continuing to use her whisking skills interchangeably between eggs and icing.

"I'm going to at least pretend to be a normal person that sleeps at night. I'll see you in the morning Sam." Lucy said as she finished making the third batch of icing and whisking the eggs for the forth batch of cakes.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was a tense car journey to the hub on that particular Thursday morning. Neither Lucy or Ianto bothered trying to make conversation and they both found themselves using the rear view mirror to glance at Sam in the back seat more often than was needed.

Sam spent the entire journey staring silently out of the window. He didn't know what to say or how he was supposed to be feeling so it was easier to just stay quiet

Ianto pulled up into their space in the carpark but didn't open the door once he'd stopped the car running. He wasn't quite sure what to say, they'd helped send many lost aliens home in the past or at least attempted but this was different; Sam had become a part of their lives over the past two and a half weeks.

"Ready?" Lucy asked, acting as though this was an every day occurrence and that she was much more prepared for it than she was.

"No" Sam let out a faint laugh, "But let's do it anyway"

"Ok." Ianto opened the car door but didn't move. "Do you want me to run you through the basic idea now so you've got a bit of an idea before Tosh springs everything on you?"

"No. Let's just do it"  
Ianto didn't say anything, he just got out of the car and started towards the office. Sam ran a hand through his hair before following, Lucy was the last to leave, slamming the door behind her.

Ianto opened up the tourist office and started the computer running, setting the shop up for the day as well as the alarm that would let them know that somebody was there. The wall opened and shut behind the trio as they continued to walk down into the main hub, Lucy noticed when they got there that for the first time ever when she hadn't been given the morning off that Gwen was there before her. She supposed that this morning was a big deal and everyone wanted to make sure that they were prepared and that they didn't miss a second of it.

"Sam." Jack said, striding forward and offering his hand. "Are you ready to go home?"

Sam took Jack's hand automatically but took a long time to answer, "I think so. I'm scared as anything but... I've got something to fight for"

"Good answer. We've got a couple of hours wait as Tosh wants to do it at exactly the same time and place you appeared, to account for as many variables as possible."

Tosh passed over a folder. "Here is a print out of the entire formula that I used. If things go wrong you should end up with another Torchwood due to manipulating the rift, at least this way they'll have a starting point and should know where I went wrong."

"But hopefully if it doesn't get destroyed in the attempt you'll just use it help start a fire."

"If we've got a couple of hours to go why are you crowding us?" Lucy asked. "I mean at least Gwen has the good grace to pretend she's not eavesdropping."

"Hey!"

"You know it's true."

"I'm waiting for Ianto to make his coffee." Owen replied. "I might not be able to drink it anymore but I can still smell heaven and pretend that's enough."

Sam took the folder and tucked it into the leather bag he'd been carrying when he first arrived, making sure it was secure, "Thanks... I- For everything you've all been doing for me"

"Just doing our jobs." Tosh said with a blush as she turned back to the computer. Sam just awkwardly looked around at the others not sure what to say.

"Come on" Lucy said gesturing at the entrance to the lower hub and the shooting range. "You may as well use this time to have a bit a of a play. I've got to hand over some paperwork. I'll be about 30 minutes and then you can give me a final lesson. OK?"

"I... okay" Sam sighed

"I'll join you as soon as I can with a mug of Ianto's coffee, promise."

"Okay"

Lucy gave a small glare to Owen and Jack who were still hanging around Tosh's workstation, they got the message and started to walk over to their own workspace while Ianto moved up to the kitchen to make a start on the coffee.

"Tosh, while they're gone can you explain this? At least the toned down version. Sam, do you want to hear?" Sam shrugged, looking away.

"In very simple terms I've reversed the data from when Sam appeared and plugged it into our rift manipulator." Tosh replied glancing up at Sam and then back at Lucy. "You can plug your laptop into my computer if you want and I can just take the relevant paperwork off."

"Nah, there's some stuff that's for Jack's eyes only." Lucy replied. "But thanks for the offer. I would leave it for later but he needs it for the call that he's probably forgotten about. Unless he remembered enough to call UNIT and postpone it."

Lucy watched Sam watching them silently and changed her mind "Never mind. I'll print it in the office downstairs and just hope that Jack understands my shorthand and references. Fancy giving me that last lesson slightly earlier Sam? Ianto can you...?" She called up to him and didn't finish the sentence but Ianto nodded, in understanding, as he started pouring the coffee.

"Sure" Sam said quietly

Lucy led the way, although Sam knew it just as well, down into the depths of the hub to the shooting range and her blessedly quiet small office. Sam shoved his hands into his pockets as he followed her

She didn't say anything as she opened it up with her handprint, as an extra layer of security so that if the hub was ever breeched the weapons would be safe and could not be used against them. She didn't say anything, instead waiting for Sam to speak first.

"There's not much left for me to teach you. You know the basics"

"I know, but I thought you might want to get out of the main floor and distract yourself."

"Thanks... Everything feels... odd"

"I'll leave you too it, just figured you might want an excuse. If you want to talk we can do that. Or you can do your best to destroy as many of the targets as possible."

She flexed her wrist, there were still bandages on from when she had sliced it open a couple of days previously but that was only as a precaution and because of the position of the wound which had already started to heal.

"I don't know what I want to do any more. I want... to go home. That's all I can think of"

"Well you've said _something._ And like Owen said that paperwork in your bag should hopefully just be used to keep the fire burning at the bakery tonight." Lucy shrugged. "I'll leave you to destroying things then."

"I hope so" Sam smiled slightly, "Want a contest?"

"You just want to prove to me that I've still got plenty to learn." Lucy said with a small forced laugh "But sure."

"You offered me a distraction. And beating up cardboard isn't so much fun on your own"

"I'll have you know that's not simple cardboard. It's a very advanced type of cardboard-like thing..."

"It's cardboard"

"Stronger cardboard-thing." Lucy countered.

Sam laughed faintly and she rolled her eyes at him; but was glad that she'd been able to provoke such a response, as she walked over to collect the knives she'd been using when Sam hadn't lent her his.

"So... death to cardboard contest?"

"Death to the strong-similar-to-cardboard-but-crucially-not-cardboard-thing" Lucy agreed reminding herself of the weight of the knives and testing how much she could move her wrist

"Whatever you say"

"First to destroy the target? or first to hit a kill shot?"

"Destroy the target. Kill shot is too easy"

Lucy grumbled about ex-assassins weighting the playing field but returned over to him confident that although she would lose it wouldn't be too humiliating and she had at least 90% movement in her wrist which was more than she had hoped.

He grinned at her, "It's my job to play to my advantages"

"Yeah well my advantages include guns but that's cheating. So using warped logic that means your advantages are also cheating."

Sam pondered this for a moment before shrugging, "You want to go first?"

"Yeah why not. May as well give me the illusion of having a chance" She threw the first knife onto the target on the right as it was in front of her. The throw wasn't as hard as she'd used in the past but it still made a pleasant 'thunk' as it hit to the left of where she'd been aiming - not that she'd tell Sam that last bit.

Sam smiled approvingly and picked a target further away, the knife landing exactly where he aimed it, the throat of the target

"Well you've won the kill shot." Lucy said as she threw the next knife, hitting the other shoulder, it looked like both her and Sam were going to go for similar tactics and rip the target across the neck were it was at it's smallest

He grinned at her and threw again

"Of course you get it slap-bang next to your previous one." Lucy groaned only half joking, she threw the third knife hitting just off to the right of the centre

"I've had a lot of practice" He replied

"And I'm just a lowly student of the great master. Ah well one day the student will beat the master", it's the circle of life.

As Lucy had known would happen Sam won their competition but she was only a handful of throws behind him, she suspected he'd held back for her but didn't say anything. She also didn't say anything when Sam seemed surprised at how long it took the 'cardboard' to break.

They spent the rest of the morning vehemently pretending they weren't keeping an eye on the lights waiting for the signal that said they were ready to go. But as time has a habit of doing it continued to pass and both sooner than they thought and later the light changed to orange and the games between them fell to a stop.

None of the Torchwood team said anything as they climbed into the two cars, Tosh deciding to take her own car and Owen joining her. There was nothing more that could be said.

Once they got to the alleyway Ianto quickly got it sealed off by flashing a pretend police badge and using some crime scene tape while Tosh directed Owen and Gwen to set up the machines.

Sam looked around as they worked, worried and excited

"So..." Lucy said walking over to him, holding a plastic bag that Ianto had passed to her. "This is it."

He took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, this is it"

"I err... I got stuff for you. Or rather Ianto went shopping on my orders and picked up stuff." She passed over the plastic bag and stuffed her hands back in her pockets.

Sam frowned and opened the bag, peering into it

"It's just a couple of things, nothing major."

He grinned as he searched through the bag, "Thank you, Lucy"

"No problem, oh and that's a sea turtle. They can't really spurt water and put out dragonfire but still... and well. If you ever need it you've got a home with us yeah? And you'll always have a friend here and as Jack can't die it doesn't matter what time you end up if the rift plays a cruel joke. Not that I think it will play a cruel joke, and I trust Tosh when she says this is the best chance for you. And I'm rambling... I just, I wanted to give you stuff that you couldn't get from home and you liked our hot chocolate so there's plenty of different flavours there and enough to last you at least a while in each flavour. Ianto said he pretty much cleared out the shelves of the ones you tried over various nights, although people gave him an odd look. Not that any of us care about odd looks... And I'm rambling again."

He pulled her into a hug and grinned wider, "Thank you"

"No problem" She said grinning back at him and hugging tightly. "And hey if I ever want a break from Torchwood I have an all access passcode to your world, not sure how I'd get back though."

"Good. I'm going to miss you"

"I'll miss you too." She pulled out of the hug. "Now you look after that baker of yours."

"I will" He smiled at her before looking over at Ianto, "you keep an eye on this one" he teased

Ianto rolled his eyes as he helped check that everything had been put exactly where Tosh's specifications said they should.

"Will do, although she's quite stubborn. I'm not sure how much I could change her mind. There's a small thing of good coffee in that bag from me as well by the way."

"I'm fairly sure you're the only person with half a chance" he replied, smiling, "Thanks. Won't be a patch on the way you make it though"

"Well that goes without saying." Jack said "Sorry to interrupt but we all need to be out of the rift manipulation area. Lucy?"

Lucy looked around and realised that everyone else was already moving away if they hadn't already. She gave Sam one last quick hug.

"Good luck, yeah?"

Sam gripped her tightly for a long moment before pulling away and nodding, "Thank you. For everything you've done for me"

"Including shooting the sofa and not you?" She said trying to make a joke to ignore the seriousness of what was about to happen, she didn't know what they would do if this didn't work.

He shrugged, "I was asking for it"

"Strictly speaking you hadn't said 'please Lucy shoot the sofa cause I'm being a dick'"

"Well no. Technically speaking it wasn't the sofa I was wanting you to shoot that night." He forced a small smile, trying not to look as scared as he was

"Lucy." Jack called warningly.

"I know." Lucy snapped back. "Well yeah, but you weren't being that much of a dick, not really. You give Cale my love and tell him that he's a good bloke and friends with a mad woman yeah? You're a braver man than me."

"LUCY!"

She was beginning to feel the air get tenser and heavier around her and pulled a face, there wasn't time for any more procrastinating.

"I've got to go."

"I know. And I will" He shuffled slightly back from her

"If nothing else it's been interesting. Good luck." With that she dashed back as quickly as she could, being careful not to trip up over one of the cables.

"Goodbye" he said quietly, watching her go

She waved as she joined the others, slipping effortlessly next to Ianto as Jack started the count down.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7" The air around them was thick and she could only imagine what it felt like to be in the centre of it all, but Sam seemed to be holding up well enough, she still sent him a brief thumbs up though.

Sam stared at her, gripping his bags tightly, "Y-You guys still owe me three rabbits" he said, trying to force some of the tension out of himself

"I'll pay later." Lucy called back.

"3"

"2"

"1"

He closed his eyes tightly, trying to think of where he was going. Think of home

Lucy watched as the air seemed to change in front of them and for a split second she could swear that she could smell grass after rain and then Sam was gone. The machines all surged with energy and then cut out, as did the lights in the buildings around them.

"Looks like it worked." Jack said, breaking the silence that had weighed just as heavily as the air. "Ok, lets get this tidied up as quickly as possible. Lucy you can have the rest of the day off if you want?"

"It's fine." She replied with a small shrug. "I've got stuff to catch up on. May as well get a head start on that."

"If you're sure..." Lucy didn't say anything but started helping Tosh disassemble everything trying to focus on what she was doing instead of thinking about what had just happened.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hey," Ianto said, coming to sit down next to her and passed over a Thermos of coffee. Lucy wasn't surprised that he had found her, she took the coffee but made no other sign that she noticed he was there and just continued to look at the alleyway that Sam and both appeared and disappeared from. It was less than a day since he'd gone and she hoped he'd been able to get home, that he hadn't ended up somewhere else, still lost and looking for his baker.

"If Sam managed it, do you think I would?" She asked eventually.

"Managed what?"

"Get home. Except it doesn't feel like home, not anymore." He looked at her and then back at the alley.

"I reckon Sam did it, and if not he'll find the Torchwood of that place and use the formulas Tosh gave him and go looking again."

They continued to sit in silence before Lucy broke it again five minutes later the coffee starting to get colder as she still didn't touch it.

"Why did I never look for those formulas?"  
"Tosh just changed her plans for you for Sam. That's why it didn't take as long as we originally thought. Two weeks to completely manipulate the rift isn't bad."  
"No," Lucy shook her head. "I didn't though. I just accepted that the rift had stolen me and I couldn't get home. I didn't ask Tosh if it was possible, or to at least double check. I accepted it, I was more interested in meeting you guys then getting back home. And now... now I'm too different. I couldn't go back and live a normal life, spend my time working in a shop while trying to get Becky back. No matter what happens I've lost her. I've lost home and I didn't even fight for it. I was too damn selfish and wanted my own life instead of having to be her parent." She passed the Thermos back to Ianto as she got up. "I'm going to use a couple of holiday days. Not sure when I'll be back, just need to... clear my head."

"You can't just leave." Ianto argued.

"I've just realised that I didn't even fight for the most important thing in the world, I was too busy enjoying myself. Let Jack know..." She shrugged and started to walk away "I don't know what to let Jack know, just tell him something."

"Lucy!"

Ianto tried to follow her but he gave up when she refused to respond, knowing that he wouldn't change her mind. He walked back to the hub in the opposite direction that Lucy had gone in trying to work out the best way to tell the rest of the team what had just happened. It felt like he had been locked outside the hotel room again.

**A/N: So we finally reach the end of the Sam plot line, I swear even I thought it would never end and I was the one writing it (with my mate's help!). It totaled at 58 pages which is stupidly long. Back to episodes on Friday, thanks for sticking with me through this I honestly didn't expect it to take this long and real life got in the way more than once.**

**Rea  
P.S I screwed up last week and missed the beginning bit of the chapter, I did go back and fix it though.**


	55. Chapter 55- From out of the Rain, Part 1

**A/N: Welcome to another Friday and finally another update from your good friend - Rea**

**I ****_AM_**** sorry I've been gone so long and interspersed with random updates, I know some of you haven't been fussed about the Sam stuff but I'm back to episode stuff.**

"Recognise any of your long lost relatives Gwen?" Owen asked sarcastically as Lucy slipped into the seats behind them. Gwen giggled and Lucy could see that Ianto was getting annoyed. It was good to actually see Ianto again and not from across the street. It had been nearly three weeks since Sam left and Lucy took an 'unexpected holiday' and wasn't sure how Ianto was going to react to her being back. She had spent the time going round the UK, not staying in one place for more than two days as she tried to get her mind around the fact that she had given up without a fight. As well as spending a week at Torchwood 1 – the original Torchwood house and had even got as far as the Brighton train station before turning round again, deciding to leave that part of her life in the past. She was determined to face it another day, but not yet. She wasn't ready yet.

"I can show you a DVD of Gwen's ancestor opening the rift if you want." She said quietly. The images on the screen changed from footage of Cardiff streets to a fair/freak show.

"Lucy!" Ianto whispered as loudly as he dared, cinema etiquette drilled into him from a young age prevented him from being any louder.

"Hi." She said slightly awkwardly. "I um... noticed an advert for the Electro doing a thing on Cardiff history, and well... that's two of your favourite things so I knew you'd be here. Hi, Gwen, Owen..."

"Your hair..." Gwen said instead of a hello.

"Oh yeah, I um got rid of the plait a day or so after I left..." She ran her hand through her loose hair, it was definitely shorter than it had been before she left and there was a blonde streak in it that hadn't been there before either. "Figured I needed a change and if you were looking for me the plait was a recognisable feature…"

"We should probably go." Owen said to Gwen and before she agreed, neither one of them wanting to be there for the conversation between the couple. Lucy noticed something on the screen and stopped them as they started to rise.

"Yeah - No, wait. That was Jack."  
"What?" Gwen was standing by this point, Owen was right; they should leave before this conversation got too personal between the couple. Ianto had spent the nearly three weeks she had been gone flicking from trying to find her to reassuring himself she was alright so he could kill her himself for worrying her so much.

"That was Jack on the screen, shooting himself."  
"Why would he do that?" Gwen asked sitting back down and concentrating on the images in front of her instead of her reappearing colleague.

"Dunno, but that was definitely him."

"I saw him too." Ianto agreed, Lucy wasn't sure if he had or not but was glad that he was professional at work and in front of others. Once they were in private things would be different but for now he wouldn't say anything about her disappearance and would respect any claims she made about Torchwood. She might have gone AWOL but she was good at her job.

The images of the circus kept repeating, the Torchwood team now watching more intently although Ianto kept glancing back at Lucy to make sure she was still there.

The images stopped and they guessed that someone had gone to fix the problem and try and find the correct film as the pianist didn't quite know what to do. Other spectators started to get out of their seats, whatever they had been expecting that evening repeating videos of an old style circus was not it and now that had stopped as well there seemed no reason to stay.

"Come on." Gwen said nudging Ianto who was still staring at the screen in confusion.

"Ah shit." Lucy said suddenly realising why this all seemed so familiar. "Call Jack and get him to come down here as soon as possible. I've suddenly realised why this seemed like deja vu, and it's not the repeating images on the screen."  
"You know what's going on." Owen said and Lucy nodded.

"I know what's going on, can't remember much. I've not watched Torchwood for a while after all, definitely not since you died and probably a couple of months before that. But this is a thing, although I thought Gwen got married next. I dunno, it might just be my memory but some things were definitely swapped around in series 1 as well."  
"What do you know about my wedding?" Gwen asked angry at the implications.

"Just that it happens." Lucy said trying to pacify her. "And even if I knew anymore I wouldn't be able to tell you."

Before Gwen had the chance to reply shadows past them on the wall, shadows that didn't seem to be attached to anything. It set all of them on edge, whatever was happening here wasn't normal and it was somehow connected to the circus that they should not have been watching.

"I'll call Jack." Gwen grumbled pulling out her phone. "But this conversation isn't over."  
"Yeah it is." Lucy was firm. "You know the rules and my memory's going. Must be my old age." She shrugged with a small smirk.  
"You're 24, watch those damned DVDs again – Jack!"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"So you say the projector went haywire?" Jack asked the guy who was in charge of the film as Lucy walked in. She had been talking to the owners of the Electro who had got over the shock and were busy complaining about how the wrong film had been shown and how they would lose any integrity they had as a cinema.

He was probably only a few years younger than Lucy, five at the most, but she couldn't help but look at him as a kid. Some jobs aged you and Torchwood was at the top of that list. Lucy looked at most people her age as kids now, they cared about Big Brother, famous couples, how much alcohol they could have on a night out, 'does my bum look big in this', panicking about what to do for the rest of their lives, trying to move out of their parents house, things that meant a lot in their world which meant next to nothing in hers. Hers was a world of excitement, adrenaline, danger and running. Her 'sabbatical' confirmed that, she had been gone for just under three weeks; spent half of that at Torchwood House with Archie and spent the other half looking around realising that she needed that thrill.

She was addicted to it, it made her feel alive. And wasn't that some kind of sick joke, she had spent most of her life in her original universe scared, dreaming of a time when she could live a quiet life, with a simple job, a loving partner and a couple of kids. It appeared the only part of her dream that she'd got correct was the loving partner, although as she had taken off she had no idea if Ianto would take her back or not, again. Being normal and an ordinary civilian was not an option, although she had been pleasantly surprised that Jack hadn't found her and retconed her knowledge. She supposed going almost straight to Torchwood House and Archie was proof that she wasn't going on the run.

"Yeah, even when I pulled out the plug it kept playing those film clips, it's like it had a mind of its own."  
Ianto walked over to the main control and turned it off and on again.

"Working now."

"I know."  
"So where did you get these?" Jack asked, gently kicking the film canisters.

"In the basement here."  
"And before today was there any sign of the circus on them?" Lucy asked stepping into the room properly instead of leaning against the doorframe.

"No, I don't think so. I was finishing them tonight and I hadn't seen them before. I thought I'd spliced them out."  
"So you _had_ seen them."  
"No, I mean, I saw them today, but there was only a few frames I swear. There was stacks of cans, I'd been compiling old footage of Hope Street and the Electro, and I was finishing it off this evening. But the circus clips weren't on it. I swear."

"So the film that was shown wasn't meant to be here?" Jack confirmed

"No, and that's what's so scary. I mean, it kind of played itself. It's like it wanted to be seen."  
"Like something was trying to get through." Lucy sighed running her hand through her hair and being surprised when it was shorter than she remembered even though it had been cut two weeks ago. "Jack?"  
"I know. We're going to need that footage as well as anything else on the cutting floor that has those circus clips on it."  
"What about that sound?"  
"What sound?"  
"There was a sound, like an organ or something. And a face, looking out at me. And there was a smell, like bromine. Or iodine."  
"Like the film itself." Ianto said under his breath.

"That's right."  
"Ok here's our numbers." Lucy said grabbing the kid's hand and scribbling two different numbers on it. "The top one is mine the next one is Jack's, anything happens, anything at all that seems out of place, you call those numbers."

Jack jokingly glared at her as Ianto removed the film from the projector.

"You know usually, I like to give my number to boys myself, makes it more fun."  
"Oh and kids like him are your type are they?"

Jack was about to respond when he concentrated on something else, Lucy quickly realised he was listening to someone speaking into his ear piece.

"Yeah... Can you trace the source?... Where?... We're on our way." He looked up at Lucy, "Grab the others, we're going to Chain Lane. Funny the things you miss when you don't have an ear piece."  
"Yeah, well it hasn't been my primary concern these past few weeks. On that note by the way I've got some stuff for you in my bag."

"Oh yeah?" He asked as they started to run down the stairs. "Anything interesting?"  
"Interesting, yes, maybe. Something you'll like? Maybe not."  
"What is it?"

"Paperwork from Archie that you've been ignoring. His updated files as well as stuff you promised to sign and didn't. I've filled out what I can but it still needs your autograph. It's also all the upgrades to the system as well as the building and he wants you to clear it so he can have some more members of staff, he's currently paying them out of his pay and would prefer it if that stopped. I had to show him how to run the upgrades from Tosh and integrate them in the system, it was running when I left but you might want to send her up. I basically just used the dummy step by step guides that she wrote for me and I have installed on my phone so I can get work done at night without having to wake her up. Plus I've got used to the system now so it didn't take too much to show him. You might want to send Tosh up to make sure I showed him correctly though. And before you say anything about taking files out of Torchwood they've been in a folder in my bag that needs a Torchwood finger print to open and that bag hasn't left my sight.

"You bring me the best presents."

Gwen and Owen were waiting in the SUV and they jumped in.

"By the way." Jack said as he started the car up. "We still need to talk about that holiday of yours, oh and I'm loving the new look."  
"I'm not so sure." Ianto mumbled and Lucy tried not to let it show how much those four words affected her. If Ianto had come to his senses regarding her and Jack she couldn't blame him, she had said that she was too stubborn to give him up and had then gone AWOL for 19 days, those weren't the actions of someone who wanted to stay with their partner.

Lucy was the only one who had any idea what to expect when they reached the bus stop on the Chain Lane; something she mentally reminded herself to tell Jack about, it would be even better if she could remember the name of the episode. But as she had learnt before seeing something on TV and seeing it in real life were two very different things. The teenager was sitting on the seat and it was obvious at first glance that something was wrong, she was too glassy eyed, staring at something just past them that didn't exist. On top of that the area around her mouth was completely dry.

"Epileptic, maybe?" Jack suggested as Owen and Gwen ran to her side. "Could be wearing a tag."  
"She isn't." Owen replied, answering both suggestions.  
"She got ID?" Ianto asked, Lucy was glad to see that although he didn't stand next to her he wasn't looking away from her either.

"I'll check." Gwen whispered.

"She doesn't know we're here." Lucy pointed out, "Not like she can hear you Gwen. Owen?"  
"She's got a heartbeat but she isn't breathing. Shouldn't really be alive. Look at her mouth." Owen pointed at it even though it wasn't really necessary. "She's got no saliva, look her lips are cracked. Dry as a bone. We need to get her to a hospital."

"Can't find any ID immediately." Gwen said pulling back. "but her jacket is still wet so she can't have been hear that long."  
"It stopped raining before we left the Electro, maybe she stepped in here to get out of the rain. Got it!" She clicked her fingers and span round to face Jack and not the teenager "Jack, this is an episode. One I don't remember anywhere near as well as I should, and I'll rectify that problem soon I promise, I'll watch all the DVDs again to be on the top of my game. But this episode, I've remembered what it's called."

"What's that?"  
"From Out of the Rain. Jack that's where these things are coming from."  
"Like the night travellers." Jack breathed. "Ok." He stood up. "We need to get this girl to hospital straight away, then we can start research. I hope you guys didn't work too hard earlier cause this is going to be a long night."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy waited for Jack and Owen outside the hospital while Ianto and Gwen grabbed a taxi back to the bay, with the film. They were planning on discussing everything with Tosh to consolidate their knowledge before Jack called a meeting. When Lucy offered to stay, there was no disagreements even though they knew there wasn't anything she could do, Ianto gave her a small smile – one that ignited the hope in her chest that things were going to be ok – and slid into the cab next to Gwen. Lucy watched the car drive away as she leant against the SUV, this was because of her choice. She had been the one to leave, not knowing when she was going to come back. And she had been the one to not answer any of his messages while she had been gone.

"They've gone back to the hub." Lucy explained. "What's wrong with her?"  
"We don't know." Owen said as he ran round the car and jumped into the driver's seat. "There's a second one from further down on the corner Hope Street and it's being treated as a coma but they're wrong. And as you can't tell us what it is..."  
"Sorry."  
"It doesn't matter that Lucy can't say, we'll deal with it, like always. Where's the film?"  
"They took it with them. Said they'd get Tosh to set it up so we can watch when we join them. Jack?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Did Ianto tell you what I saw?"  
"You mean that I was on it..."  
"Yeah, killing yourself by the looks of it."

"Sometimes the best way at looking into a freak show is by being a freak." Jack shrugged. Lucy didn't argue, she couldn't. The word might jar but Jack's 'affinity' with death and resurrection was unique, and something people of that time would definitely pay to see.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The Torchwood team sat in Jack's office watching the film that they had taken from Jonathan. The old circus/freak show played in front of them; strong men, men juggling fire and acrobats as well as others.

"I knew those two." Jack said when he saw the acrobats. "They argued day and night."

The next act was a tightrope walker but it was the one after that which held interest for them, Jack. He was in an old soldiers uniform with what looked to be his service retriever in his hand pressed underneath his chin. They watched as he called something out to the crowd, shot himself, died and came back to life only to repeat the action.

"Lucy's right." Owen breathed, or would have breathed if he still had any breath. "That's you." The film moved on to another act but Tosh reversed it so they could see it again. "Now I've seen everything."  
"I hate to say I told you so..."  
"No you don't." Ianto said automatically, Lucy had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed.

"No, I don't."  
"You did stand-up?" Gwen asked, trying not to laugh.

"I never did stand-up." Jack defended himself

"Ok then, a song-and-dance." She put on a pretend American accent and Lucy was suddenly reminded of the Jack in her world, or rather John Barrowman who was a showman of the type that Gwen was mocking Jack for.

"A senshation."

"I don't believe this Jack." Tosh said, confused, "What were you doing there?"  
"He's part of this freak show." Owen muttered.

"Some things never change" Jack replied

"Are you being rude about me?" Owen returned his attention to the screen. "Look at the state of them."

"But I do love his leotard." Gwen joked and Owen laughed.

"The Night Travellers." Jack breathed as the film continued to play, now showing footage of the whole team waving at the camera.

"The what?" Tosh wasn't the only one who wanted to know, she was simply the first to speak.

"Tosh play that back." Jack ordered. She did so and they waited for Jack to expand on what he had said or seen. "So they did exist."  
"Did you work with these people?"

"I didn't work with them." Jack said shaking his head. "I never knew anyone who did. They only performed in the dead of night. Anyway, it was just a tale that was around at that time. A ghost story... "They came from out of the rain." That's how people described them." He was lost in thought until... "Lucy!" Jack suddenly seemed to realise what was going on. "That's what you said this episode was called 'From out of the rain'."  
"Yeah." Lucy nodded, now that Jack had worked it out she was able to talk about it. It was complex and annoying being able to only drop hints but it worked, even if he should have understood earlier. She didn't think she could have dropped a heavier hint and was annoyed that Jack hadn't managed to properly understand it. "Not as much of a ghost story as you thought..."

"Great." He walked out of the office and after exchanging some looks Gwen and Owen followed him.

"Tosh can you run this frame by frame?" Ianto asked, staring at the screen trying to work out what was wrong.

"Er, sure." It took a while as Tosh wasn't used to working with the old technology. "What are you looking for?"  
"I'm not sure. But something has to be there, Lucy?"  
"Think of it as spot the difference." Lucy shrugged. "There's got to be two different troupes on that film and as far as we know only one is dangerous, maybe we should try and identify who belongs in the dangerous one and whose in Jack's."

They watched the film for another minute or so before Ianto figured out what it was that had alerted him to a problem.

"JACK!" The rest of the team quickly joined them in Jack's office again. "This film, it's not the same one we saw at the cinema." He said as soon as the Captain was in the room.

"Of course it's the same one." Gwen said as though Ianto was stupid for suggesting it.  
"Just because you can't see what's in front of you doesn't mean others can't." Lucy snapped. "Ianto's right, now let him explain why and we can get this show on the road."

"Things are different." Ianto explained. "Tosh?" Tosh started playing the film again at normal speed. "Easy to miss a first but after watching it a few times I realised. Just there." He pointed at the screen as Tosh stopped it. He was pointing at a black and white picture of a water tank, there were spectators standing around it as though they were watching something, but there was nothing there. Just an empty tank. "There was a woman in front of that water tank."  
"Yeah there was Ianto." Gwen agreed. "You're right. Sorry." She added the apology after Lucy gave her a look that quite clearly said she needed to add it for doubting that Ianto was good at his job.

"That's right, I remember her." Owen said. "Wearing almost nothing."  
"She was billed as a mermaid." Lucy added. Tosh continued the film and it changed to an image of the entrance, missing the ringmaster.

"And there was a man in a top hat, a sort of MC." Gwen said, now she was looking for the differences it was obvious and she wasn't sure how she had missed it before.

"The ringmaster, calling people in."

"What are we saying?" Tosh asked, not quite believing it but knowing that in their job anything could happen; one of her best friends was from a completely different universe where she was a fictional character after all. "Two people from a piece of film have decided to go AWOL?"  
"Yeah." Jack nodded before looking at Ianto. "Like you said, trapped in film forever. When they opened the cinema it gave them a chance. When that kid ran the film, it let them loose."

"So they've become physical? They've escaped the film?" Jack nodded in reply to Ianto's question.

"We need to find out more about the havoc they've caused in the past. We need evidence, possible witnesses."

"After all that time it's going to be tricky." Owen pointed out. "What, town and parish records?"

"Sure, we can do that." Gwen agreed, "How far back do you want us to go?"  
"As far back as you can."  
"What about trying to trace the origins of the horror story?" Lucy offered. "You said that there were stories about the night travellers, people write PhD thesis' on things like that. If it's a local legend of some sort surely they'll be writings on it."  
"It's worth looking." Jack conceded "but you probably won't find much that I can't already tell you."

"You'll be surprised what I can find, but yeah ok. I'll go looking for academic purposes once this is all over. And what about the name on the sign that the Ringmaster should be standing in front of? Surely that should be our starting point."

"We don't sleep till we find them." Jack ordered. "Toshiko, keep looking for sightings. There's got to be some way of tracing them. Ianto, with me. I need your local knowledge. Gwen, Owen start looking for anyone alive who can help us first, children who heard the stories. Lucy you've got half an hour in the shooting range to prove to me that your time off hasn't dented your abilities and then you can help these two."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Guys, I'm registering the sea" Tosh called as Lucy walked into the main area, her first couple of shots had been off a bit but she was still slightly smug that her accuracy score was still higher than Gwen's. It wasn't as high as it had been when she was practising everyday but it was still within the boundaries that she had set that meant she would be able to take Cecil out onto the field. She wouldn't have been happy if her own rules meant she was only allowed to take a Stun Gun out of the Hub, and if they had been under par Jack might not have let her out of the hub at all. Lucy conceded it was her own fault, but still the idea of potentially being left in the hub while they all left was galling.

"In the middle of town." Owen added when Lucy, Jack and Ianto (who had just come down from the conference room) all looked confused as to why registering the sea was important, the hub was on Cardiff Bay after all.

"It's gone now." Tosh said as she started to retrieve the data. "I was getting the sound of waves. Seagulls". The attempt failed at 72% and Tosh seemed both annoyed that they weren't completely believing her and that her infallible computer had let her down and wasn't able to provide the evidence to back up her claim. "I could almost smell the ozone." She mumbled.

"No other sightings?" Jack asked, Tosh replied in the negative, shaking her head. "What the hell are they up to?"  
"I can't tell you that but we have someone calling herself a mermaid and the sea, they've got to be connected." Lucy pointed out.

"Tosh set the scanner to register for anything like that happening again. How's the research going?"

"Not found anything yet." Gwen said. "We'll get there though."  
"Do so tomorrow morning, I have the feeling it's going to be a long day and I need you at your best. Lucy, I need to see those results of yours before I let you out tomorrow."

Lucy presented him with a print out of her results and he looked at them approvingly before his phone went off.

"Jack Harkness... we'll be there right as soon as we can." He hung up. "Ianto your coming with me to the hospital, we've got more victims. The rest of you go home and get some sleep, be here bright and early tomorrow. And don't forget to keep your phones on and your guns close, just in case anything happens in the night."

Lucy hung back as Tosh, Owen and Gwen went to go grab their stuff, Owen was grumbling about how he wanted to be able to have a pizza and beer after work like he used to before he died, but joking about he was able to properly boxset TV shows now and had the time to watch all the things he always meant to but never had the time to. Jack could see that Lucy and Ianto needed to talk so retreated to his office under the pretence of getting his coat.

"Am I going to a hotel tonight or the spare room tonight?"  
"Why would you do that?"

"Because I ran away for three weeks." Lucy said shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. She could face monsters; the worst humans and creatures who wanted to take over the world, apparently, she could face the Master as well. But dealing with her emotions was not something she was so accomplished at.

"Go home, we need to talk but we'll do it after this is over. How have your nights been?"

"Disrupted, not as quiet as before." She shrugged as though the fact that her nightmares were no longer silent was not a big deal. "Not as good as when you're there, but I can cope with that." She gave a small self-deprecating smile. "I did before after all."  
He pulled her into him and Lucy was glad for the contact, it was the first time someone had hugged her since she left Ianto on the bench.

"I promised never again if I could help it Cariad."

"I'm sorry." She mumbled into his chest, she wasn't sure if he had heard until he squeezed her gently.

"I know. Go home to bed, I'll join you later." He kissed her forehead and pulled away from her as Jack walked back over to them. "Captain?"  
"Come on Ianto, time to go."

**A/N: I love you all and I'll see you next week for the second half.**


	56. Chapter 56- From out of the Rain, Part 2

**Welcome to Part 2!**

"Here we go. Church Stretton, 1901" Gwen said explaining what she, Owen and Lucy had discovered. Jack and Ianto had gone to the psychiatric hospital that morning to visit one of the patients on the word of one of the nurses. It turned out she had lost her family to the Night Travellers and was their first witness. The information that had been fed back to them meant that they were able to start looking in the right place which quickly led to them having something rather than nothing. "People went missing when a travelling show visited the town, and there was one earlier on, 1898 – a small village called Wellsfield."

Lucy passed around print outs of the newspaper articles that they had found.

"These disappearances there's a lot of old wives tales attached to them through the years."

"They've become like a folk story." Lucy added. "Which means my initial thought was right, there _are_ studies on it; only a few, mostly wrong and almost completely hidden but they exist. Some propose that whatever this group were or what they were doing that it was the beginning of the idea of gypsies kidnapping and cursing you so that they would always have an audience. Of course the different religions and people running away to the circus when they were called freaks has nothing to do with it."  
"Yes thank you Lucy." Gwen growled trying to get back on track and have control again. "Well most of the tales have the same curse, people still being alive but deprived of breath. Children used to get told to hold their breath while the travelling show passed by, so it wouldn't get stolen."

"This local paper didn't take it seriously." Owen said passing it over to the others. "Er, Hunstanton Chronicle, March 1911._'Police and doctors were left both amused and baffled when Mr Alfred Mace insisted that his dead wife could be brought back to life, providing a certain flask could be found_'. He reckoned that his wife's last breath had been taken and put into a flask."

"A silver flask" Jack said, thinking about what the old woman in the psychiatric hospital had told them.

"The last breath of each of his victims." Ianto said trying to wrap his mid around it.

"So that's how he makes his ghosts. Lucy?"  
"What?" Lucy asked, she had been busy day dreaming about the times she had taken Becky to the circus, and Jack calling her name had brought her back to the real world. Jack gestured at the research on the table and she nodded. "Oh, this stuff, um yeah. He just kind of holds it to their face and takes it I think."

"So if we save the flask..." Gwen said and Lucy and Jack both nodded.

"We save them." Jack thought for a bit before issuing orders. "Right Tosh, you stay here with the equipment and direct us you want to see if there are any traces of the sea anywhere, we're going hunting for those breaths. We'll start at the Electro. Lucy, weapons?"  
"Um, standard guns are probably the best I can give you but I'm not sure how useful they'll be, these are creatures from film. They might not be tangible."  
"They're tangible enough to steal someone's breath, it'll at least hurt."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Lucy!" The voice on the other end of the phone was panicked and it took her a second to work out who it was, him saying his name helped as well. "It's Jonathan, you said to call if anything happened, they're at my flat. You've got to get over here now."  
"We're on our way." They were already in the SUV on the way to the old cinema, Owen and Gwen jumped out at the Electro. Jack gave them just enough time to not be run over before he sped the wrong way down a one way street to where Jonathan lived; Tosh had used his phone signal to work out where they needed to go.

They jumped out of the SUV guns in hand and Jonathan led them through the warehouse to his flat at the back.

"Whose in there?" Jack asked as he took point, Lucy and Ianto stood on either side of Jonathan to give him maximum protection.

"A woman, lying underwater, I thought she'd drowned."  
"Anyone else?"  
"No."  
"Be careful." Jonathan whispered as they walked through the door and he pointed out where the bathroom was. There were signs that he had left the flat in a hurry but without knowing what the flat had looked like before they weren't able to tell if anything had been taken.

Jack kicked the door down but although the bath was filled to the brim with water and there were wet footprints on the floor there was no one else in the flat. He came back and shook his head.

"Ok, Jonathan I need you to think for me." Lucy said shoving Cecil back into his holster. "Has anything been taken, you left in a hurry but we need to know if anything is different."  
"I don't know, why were they here?"  
"They probably need to be near the Electro." Jack theorised, "They haven't left the area at all."

"All my old film cans have been opened." Jonathan realised as he looked around, "I always make sure to keep them shut so they stay in good condition."

He was right there were streams of film across the floor, the Torchwood team had ignored it presuming that his flat was always like that as it was his job to cut and produce film.

"What was on them?"

"Clips from circus sideshows."

Lucy's blood turned cold, she might have thought this episode to be dull when she watched it on TV but reality was different. And reality now included a freak show from the past that literally stole someone's breath away coming back to life from old film clips. It was something that never stopped surprising her or scaring her, the difference between reality and fiction.

"They're bringing more through." Ianto breathed and grabbed Lucy's hand. Lucy wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose because he had forgiven her or if he was simple wanted/or was offering support, either way right now she didn't mind and she squeezed it back. When your reality often meant the possibility of dying every time you did your job you took support every time it was offered. It had been a hard learnt lesson and something she had shoved away for most of her first year in Torchwood but was now something she grabbed with both hands. She was no longer alone and knew that at the first moment possible she would have to explain to Ianto why she had ran and what she had learnt in that time.

"Then we need to stop them." Jack said. "Gwen, Owen, we're on our way to the Electro."  
"Look what's going on?" Jonathan asked. He had obviously had enough of them talking about things he didn't understand. "I've got to find my mam and dad, if anything's happened to them..." He stopped panicking suddenly and noticed something. "Hey there's that smell again. Like chemicals."

"Yeah I can smell it." Ianto said, noticing it as well. "Like when you develop a film."  
"That woman, she grabbed me. But her hand it was different. It wasn't like a hand. It wasn't like flesh. It was... like touching a piece of plastic, a piece of celluloid."  
"They were on the film for a long time." Lucy said as Jack picked up the old film camera, she couldn't tell him the answer but had no problem leading him towards it. "It's like they became part of it..."

"What if we filmed them?" Jack asked as he dropped the film clips and looked up at Lucy and Ianto, camera in hand.

"A film of a film?"  
"When you film something on TV you lose the quality." Lucy shrugged and Jack agreed.

"It becomes mostly impossible to understand or at least terrible to watch. But they'd be trapped on the film again. Is this thing loaded?" He asked Jonathan who nodded.

"Ok Jonathan, if you come with us you need to do whatever we tell you and if that means running away and leaving us to die, it means running away and leaving us to die. Understood?" Lucy asked Jonathan seriously, he looked as though he was going to laugh but saw all their faces and knew that they meant it. He nodded.

"Ok, but I need to find my mam and dad."

"Let's go then." Jack said, taking the lead again as they walked out of the warehouse flat, Lucy and Ianto still hand in hand. The other two definitely noticed but neither of them said anything although the Captain smirked.

"If they were trapped on film before..."

"They can be got again in the same way." Ianto agreed.  
"But they might be wise to it this time" Lucy pointed out. "Especially if it was done on purpose originally."  
"Well then we can't let them see. Let's suppose that they're made of camphor and nitrate, made of shadows, made of light. Just enough light."  
"We film them, capture them in that."  
"Then expose the film to as much light as possible."

"We'd blank them out, we'd lose them."

"And then we can stick the film on a bonfire and use it to make smores and roast marshmallows just to be sure." Lucy added and shrugged when they all looked at her. "If we miss a single frame they could come back, which probably means we'll have to dispose of all the circus stuff you have Jonathan. We can't risk it ever being played again. And smores are good, never turn down the opportunity to make smores."  
"Fine." Jonathan said, he didn't like the idea of losing things he'd spent a lot of time trying to find but was also aware of when to pick his arguments. And arguing against people who were trying to save the world from weird film-circus people who had guns with them was not a wise thing to do.

"_Jack." _Gwen called on the ear pieces. "_You need to get to the Electro now, something's happening."_

"We're on our way." He replied. "Let's go."

"Do you hear that?" Gwen said as soon as they jumped out of the SUV. There was music coming from inside the old cinema, circus music.

"Maybe it's my mam and dad?" Jonathon offered.

"Would they lock themselves in?"  
"No." He pulled the keys out of his pocket and fumbled with them, Jack swiftly pulled them out of his hands and shoved them in the door himself. "Please let them be ok, please."

Jonathan tried to push ahead the second the door was open but Lucy and Gwen both held him back.

"Mam? Dad?"

"Hold on Jonathan." Lucy said, "You agreed to listen to our orders and right now that means staying quiet and staying out of sight. Ok?" He didn't say anything and tried to push her out of the way but Lucy pushed against him. "Ok Jonathan?"

"Yeah" He sighed. "Alright."  
"Good, now come on. If anything happens you stay behind one of us, the minute any shots get fired you run like hell out of here."

They walked into the theatre and found Jonathan's parents sitting in seats near the back, the areas around their mouth drained of moisture. The Torchwood team sighed as Jonathan ran to their sides, Lucy didn't admonish him for going against her orders straight away, he was just a kid who had discovered some of the true unknown horrors of the world and his parents lives were at risk.

"Mam? Dad? What's happened?" He looked up at Lucy or Ianto to answer him and then back at his parents when he saw the answer in their eyes; an answer he didn't want to hear. "Don't die, please! Speak to me!" Gwen tried to pull him away. "Leave me alone."  
"They've been frozen in place." Ianto said. "The circus needs an audience."

The carnival music started playing louder and the curtains in front of the screen began to open, "Get him out of here. Owen, find out whose upstairs" Jack ordered and Gwen pulled Jonathan away from his parents, he struggled against her but Lucy joined in and he was soon out of the main room.

"You agreed to follow our orders." Lucy hissed quietly so they wouldn't be heard.

"But my parents..."  
"We'll do our best. But right now you should go into central Cardiff, make sure you are in a place where people can see you at all times. If we don't call you within the next hour go to the police station and ask to speak to Katrina Owens, she's the Super – the one in charge of the whole of Cardiff police force. Tell her I sent you and exactly what's happened as well as our plan. Understood?" Jonathan nodded but it wasn't enough, Lucy needed to hear it from him before Gwen could release him from her hold. "I need to hear it Jonathan, a promise that you won't run back to your parents? That you'll do what I just said."  
"I promise."  
"Good" She nodded at Gwen who let Jonathan go and he ran out of the front doors, only looking back once. Lucy and Gwen slid back into the theatre, staying as low as possible.

The strongman was busy climbing off the stage as the fire on the clubs of the jugglers went out and they seemed to rip themselves from the film. The people that had previously just been people on a screen in black and white, now existed in reality and in full technicolour. The night travellers were arriving, ready for a grand reopening later that night.

"What's the plan?" Gwen whispered as she saw Jack and Ianto also hiding behind seats and the camera in Jack's hand.

"Trap them in film again, over expose it and then have a bonfire." Lucy replied.

Next was the turn of the clowns and then another strong man, everyone they had seen on the film before, had joked about being old dead relatives was coming back to life.

"We've done it." They heard the mermaid say. "We're together again. This place is ours. It belongs to us. This whole city belongs to us."

Jack nodded at Lucy and Gwen who were closer to the foyer to them and they started to creep out, Jack had captured it all on camera. The only person he was missing was the Ring Master.

Owen chased the Ring Master down the stairs into the foyer where Gwen and Lucy were waiting for him.

"The flask." Gwen said noticing it in his hands. "He's got it." She tried to grab it but he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her down, Lucy had no doubt that he was going to take Gwen's last breath and shot him. It didn't do anything physically to the Ring Master but did interrupt his concentration long enough for Ianto to be able to run past and grab the flask for himself.

"I've got it."

"Gwen you ok?" Lucy asked as Gwen nodded grasping for breath.

"Go help Ianto."  
"I'm on it. Jack?"

"Let's go, Owen, look after the family."

"ARGHHH" Lucy heard Ianto scream and started to run faster than she thought possible.

"IANTO!"

The Ringmaster had got to Ianto first, he had only had a head start of a few seconds but obviously hadn't needed to waste precious time trying to see where Ianto and the flask had gone. Lucy rushed into the dead end, and almost collapsed in relief when she saw the Ringmaster running up the stairs away from them and Ianto still alive at the bottom. He hadn't had time to do anything to him. Ianto was safe.

She was at his side in seconds, checking him over for injuries whilst also being aware that the mission wasn't over and they still had a job to do. Ianto stood up as Jack and Gwen also came running it, Jack holding the camera like a gun whilst the Ringmaster held the flask out like a ransom.

"NO!" Ianto shouted up at him. "PLEASE."  
But it was no use, the Ring Master gave a cold smile and pulled the lid off and threw the flask out at the same time that Jack pulled the film out of the camera and exposed it to the light of the sun. If Lucy or Ianto had been watching the Ring Master instead of the flask they would have seen him disappear in the same way pictures evaporated from a film, in splurges of light from the inside destroying the lines around him. Instead they were both moving to try and catch the flask and watched in horror as they saw small lights leave it and vanish.

"If those breaths escape the flask all the victims will die." The silver flask seemed to fall in slow motion, they could see where it was going to land and Ianto got there just in time, holding his hand across the top to stop any more breaths escaping. Lucy grabbed the lid from where the Ringmaster had dropped it and Ianto held the flask to his ear.

"One." He breathed. "I think we saved just one. I can hear it, Cariad. Something inside, calling out to me." They could all hear the pain in his voice.  
"I know, Yan." Lucy said gently taking his hands, and the flask, and pulling them away from his ear. "We saved one of them," She put her hands over his and slipped the lid back on. "Let's get this back to where it belongs and then go home, yeah?"

Ianto nodded and Lucy took the flask from him and passed it over to Jack. The minute Ianto was no longer holding the flask he pulled Lucy close to him, Gwen and Jack both started to walk back towards the Electro to give them some peace.

"It was calling to me Lu..."  
"I know Ianto." She said breathing in his scent and checking him for any injuries. "But it's ok now, they're gone. We saved one."  
"They killed about a dozen people."  
"But we saved one of them. We did the best we could."  
"The Electro..."  
"Jonathan will close it for a while to make sense of things, and then hopefully he'll open it again and we'll be at the front of the queue for the grand re-opening. We were on top of this thing Yan because of you, because you wanted to come here the other night and brought Owen and Gwen with you. Without you we would have had no idea what we were looking for and would have been called in a lot later."

"You came too." He said and Lucy could see he was getting control of himself back, this had been a hard job and she regretted ever thinking of it as dull.  
"Only cause I knew you would. It's over, Ianto."

He nodded and released his hold on her, both of them started immediately checking the other one didn't have any new wounds, when Lucy was sure that Ianto only had a slight bruise from where the Ringmaster had grabbed hold of him she took his hand.

"Let's go Ianto."  
"Promise me you won't leave me again Cariad." He begged. "You just walked off and left me."  
"I know." Lucy sighed. "I'm sorry Ianto. I'll explain later, I promise. But I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me now."

He looked into her eyes as though looking for a lie before nodding and retaking her hand.

"Let's go join the others."  
"Agreed."

"Everything ok?" Jack asked as they walked back to the Electro. They were all leaning against the SUV, Ianto nodded. "Good, let's get to the hospital and return this last breath to its owner. Lucy you're going to need to call Jonathan, his parents didn't make it."  
"I told him to wait an hour before presuming us dead and going to the police." Lucy said. "Let's give him some hope for a bit longer before I break the news."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"There was nothing we could do." The nurse said as they walked down the hospital corridor, Owen and Gwen had gone back to the Hub to fill Tosh in on everything that had happened and to start the clean-up. Gwen had also said she'd speak to Jonathan about his parents and Lucy told her to pass on the message that she'd check on him tomorrow. Ianto decided to see things through to the end and as Lucy had no intention of letting go of his hand for a while so she went with him and Jack. "They all died so suddenly. Except this little soul."

She pushed open a door and they found themselves in paediatrics and saw the little boy who had been in the car going home with the rest of him family. Lucy was reminded of sitting by Becky's bedside and Ianto obviously thought the same thing because he squeezed her hand reassuringly. This was different to Becky, she couldn't do anything to help her sister but she could help this boy. Jack checked the boy's pulse and Lucy pulled the flask out of the pocket of her leather jacket and handed it over to Jack.  
"I need your help." Jack said to the nurse.

"What is that thing?"  
"Please. Just trust me." He picked the boy up and the nurse immediately moved to help as Jack positioned him on his lap. "Hold his head." He removed the lid from the flask and covered the top with his thumb.

"What's in there?"  
"Something that belongs to him." Jack replied, holding it against the boy's mouth and then removing his thumb so the breath had nowhere else it could go except back into its owner's body. "His last breath. His life."

The kid gasped and started coughing.

"What have you done to him?" The nurse asked and Lucy used the hand that was still in Ianto's to brush the tears away from her eyes.

"It worked. He's ok."  
"Welcome back kid." Jack said with a grin as the child smiled up at him.

"Let's go home." Ianto said with a teary smile and Lucy nodded. It had been a tough day for both of them and she still owed Ianto an explanation.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto had insisted that Lucy wait to explain, at that moment he didn't care why she had walked off and gone for so long, it didn't matter. In that moment she was back and they were both alive and needed sleep. But the next morning things were slightly different. They made breakfast knowing that they had to talk, to work out where things stood between them.

"You left me." Ianto said dryly as he started to put the plates in the dishwasher.

"I know."  
"You said hardly anything to me while you were gone."  
"I know that too."  
"Why?"  
"Because..." She wondered what to tell him and he obviously saw something in her that showed she was contemplating lying, or at least not telling the whole truth

"If you lie to me, I walk." He shut the machine and stood right in front of her, forcing her to look straight at him. "I love you Lucy, but I can't keep doing this. Waiting for you to let me in. It's not fair, for either of us. I didn't know if you were dead or alive or if you were suddenly going to turn up and say you were going to use Tosh's research and go home and were leaving Torchwood, you were leaving me..."

Lucy sighed and sat down at the table. She knew she had to tell the truth and now the problem was working out the best way to say it without sounding stupid. Or at least stupider than needed.

"I was Becky's sister for a long time." She started and now that she had started the words seemed to flow from her mouth. "So long that I stopped thinking of myself as Lucy first. I was her protector and the worst moments of my life were when I wasn't quick enough to get between her and Dad's fist. It only happened four times and each one is seared into my memory, telling me that I needed to do more, that I wasn't good enough." She clenched her fists to keep herself in the present rather than in memories.

"When that car hit her and I lost her and the social took her I was glad she was safe, that Dad couldn't get her any more that I couldn't fail her again. And then they wouldn't let me have her, I wasn't good enough and I could understand. I had failed her too many times but I was lost, I had no idea what to do with all this spare time I suddenly had, everything that I normally did included Becky. So I retracted further into myself and into the worlds inside TV and books and Doctor Who and Torchwood. Worlds that were as bad as mine but they fixed it, they saved the day and sometimes everyone lived. Then I went to Cardiff, I was starting to get used to being alone, although it still felt wrong but I was seeing Becky every weekend. So Cardiff was a big deal, I was putting myself first for the first time I could remember, doing something I wanted to do instead of going to the care home to see my sister. I could no longer use Becky as a reason for not being able to do something so I planned and I planned some more. And I had a good weekend, called her in the evening and promised that I'd show all my photos and take her with me the next time I went. I'd decided to go out for a meal that evening instead of just going straight back to the hotel and getting some food from there, I was going home the next day, back to Brighton and Becky and wanted just a bit longer by myself – being just Lucy. As well as getting a few extra photos of the tower, I went into the shop at the Doctor Who experience, deciding to just go back and buy everything that I wanted instead of putting it back like I'd done earlier that day, I was going to spend my weekend on me, just me. And then I ended up here, where I could completely lose the 'Becky's sister' bit, except I replaced it with 'Torchwood Agent' and then 'Ianto's girlfriend'. I was more Lucy, more me, than before but still felt like I was something else first. And learning that I could have got home, that it could have been possible. Maybe. But that Tosh had done some calculations and I could have tried... Suddenly everything that had been 'Becky's sister' rallied against me, reminded me of those times that Dad had got there first... I had let her down again, but this time it was by not fighting. Sam had been brave enough to take that risk to get back and I hadn't, I had given up."  
"You didn't let Becky down." Ianto said interrupting her.

"Logically, now, I know that, but it didn't feel like that. I went back to being 'Becky's sister' before everything else and I hadn't even done that right. So I ran, I needed to remind myself of Lucy, of who I was."  
"And what did you learn?"

"That I probably should have fought to go home, that I should have tried. I'll never forgive myself for just accepting it and not fighting. But at the same time, I'm glad I didn't. I like being a Torchwood Agent and I love being your girlfriend. There are still bits of me I'd change, ingrained bits, habits from before that I can't get rid of, scars from home. But I'm ok now. I can't forgive him for what he did to me or Becky but I can move on. I _want_ to move on, with you. Because if I don't then he's won."

"Ok." Ianto nodded. "Then lets take a step forward."  
"So we're ok?"  
"As long as you don't run again then we're more than ok. Move in with me."  
"What?" Lucy laughed confused, the sombre tone of before where she had been explain why she had run and hadn't got in contact was gone. "We already live together."  
"Yeah but you kind of upgraded from the spare room to mine without any big fan-fair, it happened because of your nightmares not because we were moving in together. Let's do it properly this time. Let's buy a house, the two of us."  
"Ok." Lucy nodded excited. "I mean if your sure. I did just go AWOL."  
"And now you're back. I was angry at you for a lot of that time as well as being worried. But Torchwood reminded me that we don't always have time, we could only save that little boy..."

"But we saved someone."

"And it's better than nothing but it's not brilliant, Jonathan has to plan his parents funerals because they wanted to show off his abilities and the old film happened to contain the night travellers. Life's too short sometimes. So let's do it."  
"Ok." She grinned and kissed him. "ok."  
"I just need you to do one thing for me."  
"What?"  
"Put your hair back in a plait, I know it'll be a lot shorter than normal, but you look weird without it in public. I love it when you take it down in here, it means you're home. But outside of this flat it just doesn't suit you at all."  
Lucy rolled her eyes but nodded, it had been weird not having it and she quickly parted her hair into three, as Ianto had guessed it was a lot shorter than normal and it was a bit more awkward for it to be her normal side plait and not just a braid down her back but it was still doable.  
"There, you look like you now."

**A/N: Look I'm back to EVERY Friday. I've not been here for 2 weeks in a row for a while, lets continue this and I'll see you next week!**


	57. Chapter 57 - Adrift

**Well it's still Friday somewhere in the world and it would have still been Friday when I uploaded if my laptop didn't have a hissy fit and had to be restarted a handful of times before he conceeded that there might be an error and fixed it...  
Sorry it's a short chapter and quite bitty, but I really struggled with getting Adrift done as it's such a Gwen centric story.  
I hope that you still enjoy it, please Review they make me smile and want to write more!**

Lucy's phone rang and she answered absent mindedly, much more interested in the nerf gun competition that was happening in the office between Owen, Jack and Tosh. Since they had to be a bit more alert of potentially hurting Owen as he could no longer heal, Jack had decided the best way to still annoying his medic and keep his reactions sharp was to use a nurf gun. This had become an all out war between the two men and Tosh had joined in when it had started becoming a distraction from her work as Jack tried using her as a human shield. Lucy had stayed out of it so far but it wouldn't take long for that to change (she had ordered her own nerf gun last night), Ianto had decided to watch from the kitchen while Gwen was out somewhere.  
"Yeah?"  
_"Lucy?"  
_"Oh, Hi Katerina." She covered the phone briefly. "Oi shut up a bit guys, I'm on the phone." Owen swore back at her but the battle suddenly became a much quieter one. "Sorry, what can I do for you? You normally only call outside of the normal times when there's a problem. Please don't tell me another guy has just appeared out of no where and has been threatening your people with a knife."  
_"Not today. I was just wondering if you knew why one of my Constables claims he's doing research for Torchwood on missing people."_  
"No clue, but I'm guessing it's Andy Davison and the Torchwood agent is his ex partner Gwen Cooper?" She asked as she started to walk down to her office so there would be no worry of the call being overheard. She wasn't worried that Jack would get annoyed with the phone calls between herself and the Detective Super Inspector but there just didn't seem any point of bringing it up. They all had their own sources and side projects, this was just one of hers. Plus, going down to the small office next to the shooting range was just habit.  
_"How did you possibly know?" _She could hear the sarcasm dripping off every word.  
"Because annoyingly I happen to work with Gwen Cooper and overheard her getting into an argument with Jack about how we should do more." Lucy groaned as she opened the door and went straight over to her desk to grab a pen. "What's Andy got her into now?"  
_"You say that as though he's a bad influence."_  
"No, I say that as someone who thinks if Andy thought with his head a bit more and was willing to accept the idea of a world outside of Cardiff and in the shadows he would make a damn good agent. But he's too busy being happy to keep to the world of what he knows."

"_You'd steal another one from me?"_  
"He's on the beat, I bet before his connection with Gwen and Torchwood came to your notice you never even knew who he was. Anyway, you didn't call me for a chat."  
_"No, from what I can gather it started with a missing boy, Jonah Bevan, been missing for 7 months and 13 days."_  
"You're reading from his file aren't you?" Lucy asked, knowing where this was leading; Flat Holm. When she had returned from her 'sabbatical' as Jack had taken to calling it, she had finally got round to putting the files back on Jack's desk. Of course there was so many files that it actually meant she put a small locked filing cabinet on his desk, and she had kept her own copies of the files, but it was the thought that counts. Jack hadn't mentioned anything about it yet and Lucy was hoping he didn't. She knew that he had known that she had taken over and that she was still involved but so far they had managed to miss each other on their weekly visits to the island to check on the residents. Lucy had met Jonah and thought he was a great guy, one that tried to keep up to date of what was happening in the world. She had even kicked a ball about with him a bit while he was in one of his few 'good' hours.  
_"Of course I am. PC Davidson was the first on the scene and has supported the mother in every way possible."_  
"So when he was completely out of leads and tired of telling the mother that he had nothing he decided to turn to Torchwood to see if Gwen could find anything else out using our information."  
_"Something like that. Plus we've got CCTV footage of Captain Harkness in the area 45 minutes later."_  
"Of course you do." Lucy sighed, there wasn't a neat way to tidy this up. They couldn't just keep the investigation under the carpet and safely kept away like they did with Jonah.  
_"This is the part where I ask you what you know and you lie to me isn't it?"_ She could hear the resignation in Katerina's voice. The woman didn't become a Super Inspector without knowing when to back down and when to fight and push forward, she was also fully aware that Torcwhood did a necessary job even if she didn't fully understand what that job was.  
"It's the part where I tell you that the reason Jack was there was almost certainly classified." Lucy agreed.

"_Most of the time it's a blessing being able to deal with you as closely as we do now, you can take problems off our hand when needed and when you do it's never as rude and you give me as much information as you can. But there are times like this when it's more than a bit annoying, especially considering you're about half my age."_

"Sorry." Lucy shrugged even though she knew that Katerina couldn't see it.  
_"It's not your fault. Just luck of the draw. Just answer me this, do I need to pull PC Davidson off the case and was your Captain being there related to the missing child?"_  
"I doubt you could pull Andy away from it, he'd continue doing what he could unofficially." Lucy only half joked.  
_"Lucy..."_  
"Ok, no it's fine let him do what he feels he needs to and yes. But I can't tell you more than that, I can promise you that Jonah's disappearance was because of nothing we did but Jack was there because of it."  
_"Thank you for being honest. I've got to get back to work."_  
"Bye."  
_"Bye Lucy."_ Lucy hung up and sighed, Gwen was getting close to the truth and she would never stop searching until she found out what was happening. She was like a dog with a bone when faced with a mystery; it was what made her such a good Torchwood agent. It also made her bloody annoying.

"Jack." She called as she got back up to the main floor, the battle was seemingly paused for a coffee break. "We've got a problem."

"What?" He came over to her coffee mug in one hand an nurf gun in the other.  
"Gwen and Andy are looking into Cardiff's missing person epidemic. I've got a funny feeling that's what she's been working on with Tosh's help."  
"Flat Holm?"  
"Yeah? Turns out Andy Davidson is the police officer in charge of Jonah's missing person case."  
"Just our luck." It was the first time they were both openly admitting knowledge of the care home for the rift's stolen people.  
"Yeah. I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure I spotted Tosh looking at the negative rift spikes."  
"She wanted to call a meeting when she got back. Thank you for giving me warning, we need to get Gwen to shut this down as quickly as possible."  
"When have you ever known Gwen to ignore a mystery?" Lucy asked sarcastically. "She ran into a car park to try and listen in and find out about Torchwood for God's sake. Not even Retcon made her give up."  
"There's a first for everything. Either way this is the end to a few days of light duties and nerf gun battles."

"I hate myself for asking this but do we tell the others about Flat Holm?"  
"I presume Ianto already knows?"  
"Of course he does." Lucy shrugged. "Ianto knows everything about Torchwood. But Owen could help, he's a doctor."  
"He's dead and they can lash out. What can they do that we're not doing already? No this stays between us."  
"Ok. I just thought I'd let you know."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Cardiff has an epidemic of missing persons," Gwen started as Tosh handed out a few print outs. "totally out of kilter with any other comparable city. And it's all down to the rift."  
"Are you sure they aren't just normal missing persons?" Ianto asked, he had been filled in on the situation and Jack's order to shut down this line of research as quickly as possible. "People do go missing for other reasons."

"No, Toshiko crossed-referenced the locations with the rift spikes. The people we've identified here are definitely the victims of the rift."

"What do we think happens to them?" Owen asked and Lucy answered before Jack could.  
"Scattered through time and space, different worlds probably. The rift stole me after all and to the best of my knowledge my Cardiff doesn't have a rift running through the middle of it. If the rift could steal me – and Sam - why are you so surprised that it could steal people from here?"

"Cheery thought, thank you."  
"This is good work." Jack complimented Gwen. "But I don't know what you want us to do."  
"We find a way to prevent it, and we were able to send Sam back maybe we can bring them back."  
"Mine and Sam's case is completely different from what I understand," Lucy said looking towards Tosh who nodded in agreement. "a signal on the rift that has only been seen a few times before. We just happened to be the lucky ones in the way. Besides even if we could reverse the signal – which is a stupid idea as last time we played with the rift without havig any idea of what we were doing we accidentally released Abbadon on the world. But even if we could we'd only be able to go back to the exact same point in space and time. If they move even a couple of steps in any direction we could end up not bringing them back at all or splinching them."  
"The amount of times you manage to bring up Harry Potter references is frankly remarkable." Owen said dryly.  
"Thank you, I try and besides you're the one who recognised it. Wait till you read book 7, the Doctor cried and I read it all in one sitting. I still haven't got over most of the deaths."  
"It is still not weird to hear you talking in past tense about a book that comes out next month."

"Can we get back on topic?" Gwen asked annoyed, she hadn't thought about Lucy's situation but now that it had been pointed out to her she realised that she had expected Lucy to be on her side as she was one of the self-named victims of the rift. "If we can't bring them back we should stop it from happening."  
"Toshiko, can we predict when these spikes are going to happen?" Jack asked.  
"No. And they're gone in a matter of seconds."  
"Then I don't know how we combat them."  
"Jack we have a duty here. These people are victims of the rift."  
"So am I Gwen. The rift brings and the rift takes away, we've all known this from day one even if you've never thought properly about what this means. If we could predict it then it would be different but you heard Tosh we can't. How are we supposed to help?"  
"We helped you!" Gwen's anger flared at how she wasn't getting the support she needed. She had expected a discussion about it but had never thought that Jack wouldn't want to help these people.  
"You didn't help me." Lucy laughed. "You weren't here when I appeared."  
"We helped Sam."  
"Tosh managed to get the chances of manipulating the rift to get him home higher than 50% and Sam decided to take that chance. Either way sending someone away is different to bringing them back."

"If they'd been attacked by a weevil..."  
"Weevils we can catch. If they're victims we fix their wounds." Jack's voice was cold and interrupted the argument before it could get into fall swing. "But this, we don't know when it's going to happen. We don't know where they end up. Seriously Gwen, practically, tell me what we should do."

"We help those left behind. Why not?"

"It's nothing to do with us. Move on."  
"Jack you should see these people. Lucy, what if you're family is still trying to find out where you disappeared to?" Lucy clenched her fists at the thought and Ianto put a hand on arm to stop any other reaction.  
"Some things we can't fix."  
"So we don't even try?"

"Look Jack's right, and Lucy, they need counselling, support. That's not us." Owen said  
"Ah, ok, is that what you all think?" They all looked away from her questioning gaze. "We are the only ones who know the truth. We can help them. We don't have to be this hard. It's not a badge of honour Jack."  
"Close this down." Jack ordered as he got up and walked away.  
"Jack!"  
"I'll talk to him." Ianto sad as he got up to follow their boss.  
"So is that it then? We just sweep it under the carpet?"  
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." Owen intoned gesturing at the bandages on his left hand.

"Oh bollocks to serenity."  
"For a lovely girl, you've got a very dirty mouth"

"Yes."  
"I'm with Jack."

"Lucy you'd want someone to help your family." Gwen pleaded as a last resort.

"Stop talking about things you don't understand Gwen." Lucy said harshly. "There's nothing that we can do to help them, we're a top secret alien fighting organisation. Not a group of therapists."  
"Our job is to tidy up after the rift, surely this is part the mess that it leaves behind."  
"There is nothing we can do. Or were you not listening? We can't predict them, we can't stop them. And if we start telling people about the rift that contradicts the whole Official Secrets Act thing that you signed." Lucy got up and walked away.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"We'll take it from here, Helen." Jack ordered as the head nurse started to realise that she might have let someone in who shouldn't be there. "It was Ianto wasn't it?"  
"Well it wasn't me." Lucy shrugged.  
"What are the pair of you doing?"  
"I can explain." Jack said walking towards her while Gwen started walking back equally quickly, Lucy just stayed leaning up against the wall as the head nurse just watched in confusion.  
"No, no no no. You stay away from me."  
"Gwen let's go outside and talk"  
"These people were taken by the rift what are they doing here? What have you done?"  
"Gwen for once in your life just listen to what people are trying to tell you before you start making assumptions and getting 5 from a sum as simple as 1+1." Lucy said still leaning against the wall. She sighed when Gwen realised that she was next to a room marked as belonging to Jonah.

"He's here. He's been here all along."  
"It's not that simple."  
"Open it."  
"Gwen before I..."  
"Now!"  
"She's not going to listen to either of us, Jack." Lucy pushed herself off the wall and pulled one of the keys out of her pocket. Jonah felt safer being locked in and could unlock it from the inside if needed. Gwen, who had no knowledge of what was really happening, looked disgusted at the key in Lucy's hand. Jack sighed and gave a small nod, Lucy unlocked the door and Gwen walked in.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The Welshwoman walked out of the small room with tear marks down her checks and walked out of the building in silence. Jack and Lucy followed a few minutes later and found her sat on the grass outside looking out at the Bristol channel, they sat down either side of her and Jack was the first to speak.  
"When I took over Torchwood, there were two just like Jonah. Ravaged from falling through the rift. Being kept in the vaults, neglected. I wanted them looked after. I set this place up. Told the staff these were experiments that had gone wrong."  
"How many are there?"  
"17 at last count. It's increased over the last year, it's like the rift is trying to correct it's mistakes"

"One appeared while Jack was still travelling, Alice." Lucy took over the explanation and Gwen turned to look at her. "So I dealt with it as much as I could, helped settle her in. I'd made sure that none of you saw it when we split Jack's work. Hide all the information relevant to Flat Holm in my office before we even started, Ianto's the only other person who knows about it but that's because Ianto knows everything and I knew about it already because of this. I know what it's like to have your life stolen by the rift and I'm one of the lucky ones. Had Jack decided that I wasn't a good fit for Torchwood and retconned me or my 'transfer' not gone as smoothly as it did I would be one of the residents here."  
"But not all the missing return?"  
"Like I said before, some die – Jonah was lucky that he didn't – and maybe some are like me and they find a new life wherever they've been dropped off."

"You can't keep them hidden. They have families who deserve to know."

"Gwen, they're sick in ways you can't begin to imagine. We can't fix them, we just care for them." Jack tried to explain but Gwen wasn't budging.

"Jonah's asked me to bring Nikki here."  
"No, no way."  
"She said not knowing is the worst part."  
"How are you going to tell her that her child has aged 40 years in the past 7 months, that he's scarred."  
"We don't have the right to hide it from her."  
"If you tell her, you have to tell her about the rift and Torchwood."  
"Then I will."  
"The Official Secrets Act thing really doesn't mean much any more does it? This is one of the most well kept secrets in the world, only a very few number of people actually know what Torchwood do let alone about the rift. But no, lets tell everyone in Cardiff."  
"What if she doesn't believe you?" Jack was still locked in a battle of wills with Gwen so they both ignored Lucy's sarcastic comment.  
"I have to try. We owe her the truth. Jack if you'd lost someone, wouldn't you want to know?"  
"I'd want to still be able to live in hope, if it matters." Lucy said when she could see that Jack was going to give in. "If you tell Nikki then that hope, that her son is alive and well and happy is destroyed and she has to face reality. This reality."  
"Ok." Jack gave his agreement to Gwen and Lucy sighed, she had hoped she'd be able to change Jack's mind.  
"Ok." Lucy said as well even though her agreement wasn't needed. "Ok, I think this is a mad idea and won't work out the way you think it's going to but if this is what you want then ok."  
"Thank you." Gwen was speaking mainly to Jack but she flashed a small smile in Lucy's direction as well as she stood up and started to walk back towards the complex.  
"I'll have some Retcon ready; just in case this goes tits up." Lucy said before Jack could say anything, he nodded in agreement and also got up ready to leave the Island.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy and Jack were waiting by the doors of Flat Holm, waiting for Gwen and Nikki to moor. Whatever happened it was going to be painful and awkward and neither one of them wanted to leave the nurses to deal with it by themselves.

Nikki didn't say anything too them until they let her in, she was obviously shocked by the amount of security around the building. It was only when she saw the inside and the nurses that she spoke.  
"Where is he where's my son?"  
"This way." Lucy gestured further down the corridor where Helen was waiting for them outside Jonah's room. She didn't look very happy with this idea either but from a small nod of agreement from Jack she opened the locked door with her passcard and the light turned green.

"Remember what I said." Gwen said to Nikki. "You're not going to recognise him at first.  
"I know."  
"He's aged, he's been injured."  
"I just want to see him."  
"You understand what I've told you now, Nikki? He's not a child anymore." Gwen wanted confirmation that the woman knew what she was letting herself in for. But Nikki was a mother in distress who would have said anything to see her son one more time.

"Doesn't matter. I have to see him, let me see him."  
Gwen nodded and pushed the door open, Lucy walked behind Nikki she couldn't help wanting to see this car crash for herself.

"Hello."  
"Jonah?"

"Yes?" His voice wavered but he stayed in the shadows facing the wall.  
"I can't see you. Jonah?"  
"Mum?" Jonah stood up and turned around and it was immediately obvious that Nikki hadn't truly been listening to Gwen's warnings about what had happened to her son and how it had affected him.  
"No."  
"Nikki."  
"Mum."  
"That is not my son!" She pointed an accusatory finger at Jonah and struggled against Gwen who was still holding her in place. "Will you let me out of here. You are sick all of you."  
"Listen to me... that is Jonah I promise."

"Did you fix my wardrobe door?" Jonah's quiet voice stopped Nikki's struggling. "Flat pack and we made it together, bottom left hinge keeps coming loose. You said you'd sort it."  
"No."  
"Every evening you'd buy a bottle of beer. You let me sneak one sip, just the one. Don't want to get a habit for it."  
"Make him stop."  
"You've got two alarms cause you always sleep through the first. You talk about the day when you will earn decent money and afford yourself some decent make-up." Jonah was taking small steps closer towards his mother.  
"I'm not hearing this."  
"You won't buy me a double bed, because you don't understand what I need it for."  
"Shut up!"  
"And when I ask you why you haven't got married, you say you'll never be lonely because I've always got you. It's me Mum" he started crying and Lucy suddenly wished she'd never walked into the room with them and that she'd stayed outside with Jack and Helen. "It's me!" That last appeal seemed to get through and Nikki separated herself from Gwen's hold so she could walk over to her son.

"Jonah?"  
"I've been so lost. I walked for years to get home. I'm sorry."  
"Why?"  
"That night. I was late. I'm sorry." Jonah started crying and Nikki lifted a hand to her sons face to wipe away the tears and to comfort him. And within seconds they were hugging and comforting each other.  
"Oh the things I've seen Mum."  
"It's ok."  
"It'll take time."  
"It'll be ok." Nikki reassured her son.  
Lucy was suddenly aware of Helen who had walked in and joined them, Helen gestured at her watch and Lucy realised what she meant. They had to wrap this up, quickly.

"You have to leave Jonah now."  
"Helen." He called for the nurses help.  
"What?"  
"It's for your sake." Lucy said stepping up to help even though she knew that Helen could deal with this herself.  
"No, I'm taking him home. Now."  
Jonah, had stepped away and was going back to sitting on his bed, unfortunately he knew the routine.  
"That wasn't part of the agreement. We can't let Jonah leave. He needs help."  
"Nikki, stop for a second. You can't just take him out of here."  
"I know how to look after my child. I'll... I'll tell them he's my father. I can take care of him."  
"We can't allow that."  
Jonah was already back on his bed and Lucy could see him retreating back into himself to try and hide from what was about to happen.  
"Nikki you need to leave this room. Now."  
"He's my son. I say what's allowed."  
"Jonah?" Gwen suddenly noticed what was happening to Jonah.  
"It's started again." He was shaking now.  
"What's happening?"  
"He's started the down swing." Lucy explained as Helen sat by him.  
"What's the down swing?" Nikki didn't know where to look, at Lucy who was answering her questions or at her son.

"Jonah has..." Lucy tried to work out how to explain it. "Good moment and bad moments. The good moments he's mostly like any normal person. You and Gwen have both been him in the good phase. But those phases are continuing to get shorter, the rest of the time he's in what we call the down swing. The bad moments. Please Nikki, you don't want to see your son go through this."

"Helen?"  
"I'm not leaving, he's my son. I don't want to leave him."  
"Ok. Ok, you can stay." Gwen reassured Nikki.  
"We should step back." Lucy tried to pull her back but Nikki still wavered wanting to be close and to help her son.

No matter how much Lucy and Helen tried to warn Nikki and Gwen nothing would have been able to prepare them for Jonah's scream. Which never stopped, even for him to breathe. The sound continued to reverberate though them, a primal sound that seemed out of place in the modern world.  
"What's happening?" Gwen asked Lucy as Nikki rushed to try and get away from the sound of her son screaming and in so much pain, towards the boat.  
"You should have asked to see his file." Lucy replied. "Jonah saw things no human is supposed to ever seen, the heart of a dark star."

Jack gestured that he would stay on the Island for longer and nodded at Lucy when she flashed the Retcon in her pocket.

Once they were on the boat, Nikki couldn't stop staring at the Island and thinking about what had just happened. Lucy passed her a water bottle.  
"Have a drink."  
"No thanks."  
"You might find a drink helps, it'll at least stop you from feeling sick. I know I needed it the first time I visited the Island."  
Nikki sighed and took the bottle unthinkingly.  
"You knew."  
"Yeah."  
"And you let me see him."  
"He's your son, no matter what happened to him."  
"But that scream."  
"He saw some terrible things. Drink up, it'll give you the time needed to try and get your head around what just happened. I'll join Gwen at the back of the boat." Lucy turned away but not before she saw Nikki take a drink.  
"Did you just Retcon her?" Gwen hissed and Lucy nodded.  
"It's a low dose. Enough that she won't remember the past 24 hours. She'll get home and sleep and it'll all just be a dream."  
"You shouldn't have done that."  
"Why? Because she should have to remember Jonah's scream? Not knowing is the worst while you don't know, but finding out and losing hope is even worse than that."  
"You still shouldn't have retconned her."  
"Well tough shit. I've done it now." Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it to see a text from Ianto saying that he was waiting for them at the jetty with the SUV. "Ianto's waiting for us to help us get her home. "Just... just leave it for now. Please. We've both had bad days. When we get back to the hub, you can look at the files for the others so you can understand what's going on properly. Go home, go back to Rhys, take a day off, take two days off, ask Rhys to bunk off with you and come back to work once your head's back on straight."  
"Jack won't..."  
"I'll let Jack know. We can survive without you for a day or two. He'll text you if we really need you. Do you want me to take down the stuff you put all over the walls of the interrogation room?"  
"I can do it."  
"Ok. Then let's get Nikki home and then you can go back to Rhys and I'll let the others know and deal with whatever shit the rift sends us. You and Rhys have a wedding and a future to prepare for and I need you in full form, it's no fun getting annoyed at you if you can't give as good back."  
Gwen gave a small smile and nodded and Lucy stepped away again, glad to see that Nikki had drunk half the bottle of water already.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"You're annoyed with me." Ianto said as he tidied up dinner which had been a tense affair.  
"No, well yes. But I can't blame you. Had it been Tosh or Owen who had stumbled upon it, I probably would have told them."  
"So it was just because I told Gwen."  
"I don't know. I just... she went in without thinking. Do you reckon Sam is in a Flat Holm somewhere?"  
"I reckon we'll never know but I think he got home, or at least closer to home than he was here."

"Mmmn." Lucy wasn't convinced and was still annoyed that Ianto had told Gwen about Flat Holm.  
"I'm sorry I went behind your back. But I knew what you would say and she wasn't going to give up."  
"I know."

"Did you want to watch a film or something tonight? We could look at some more places."  
"No. Sorry Ianto. I'm... I'm going to go back into work. I know Jack's on the graveyard shift tonight but I've got paperwork and stuff to do. Plus I want to go on the range for a bit."  
"You're running away. You promised you wouldn't do this again Lucy."  
"No, I'm just recalibrating. I'll be a couple of hours." She said giving him a quick kiss and grabbing her keys.  
"You sure?"  
"Promise."

Lucy wasn't surprised that Ianto was still awake and reading on the sofa when she got back, two hours later just as she promised.  
"Let's go to bed."

**Like I said at the top, please make me happy and review!**


	58. Chapter 58 - Promotion

Lucy smiled at Jack as he walked down into her office, she had a couple of different piles of paperwork on her desk as well as a large pile on the floor of old paperwork from the archive from the origins of Torchwood, she and Ianto were working through the original paperwork and making sure that it was all legible and checking to see if they could cross reference it with anything. She raised her hand to show Jack she would be a couple of more minutes and continued to speak down the phone.

"Yes, yes Katarina. I get that but... ...No, trust me. It might be weird and freaky but it's not one of ours. People are weird sometimes... ...because I've looked at your records and I was in the area earlier chasing something and there was no sign that this is one of ours, I even had a quick peek into the crime scene... ...Sorry, I'm just telling you what I know but I'll personally have a proper look tomorrow morning going over everything with a fine tooth comb but I want a complaint free one next time. And keep Anderson away from me - he's an idiot of the highest order." Lucy laughed "Unfortunately that is your problem, not ours. Anyway I've got to go, my boss is has just appeared, I have a funny feeling I've forgotten a piece of paperwork... ...oh and I'm sure you do all yours on time. I'll let you know what I find tomorrow but I really don't think it's ours... ...Bye, see you soon." Lucy hung up and looked up at Jack who was making himself comfortable sitting on her desk, looking at the different files.

"Oh make yourself comfortable." Lucy joked, "Don't worry about me and please don't say you've moved those piles."  
"What were they?"  
"First pile is police reports and complaints. Second is UNIT and their problems as well as a list of every time they beg for use of our equipment and their recent cover up stories so we don't repeat them and can back them up if needed. Third is finances for weapons, Tosh's tech research and the archives plus I'm making a food budget so Ianto is not always asking for money back that you take ages to do."  
"Why can't he just use the Torchwood card?" Jack asked

"Oh he would, except we don't have a Torchwood credit card." She pointed out. "That'll be somewhere in the pile too. One of the downsides of being a top secret investigation, is that having a bank account with our name on it might give away more than we want, even if it is only that we are dependent on coffee and take out."

"Ahh, I can understand how that makes things more difficult. What's the last pile?"

"That's the current version of the official secrets act as well as the old one and the one before that. Thought I'd look at the different changes made, the more I know about it the more I can feasibly change it properly." Jack raised an eyebrow and she blushed slightly. "Right, yes. I meant to talk to you about that... just wanted to start looking at it properly first before it started being just an idea. But I figured that maybe you wouldn't want all of your agents not committing treason, which technically we are because Rhys knows and none of us retconned him. Anyway, I wanted to talk about that and maybe not boxing up our lives and putting them into a garage when we die..."

"Sounds like you've got a lot going on." Jack said. "I had been wondering where some of that paperwork had got to. Everyone else gave back what they had taken straight away and quite happily. But I was still missing a fairly big chunk, although I did notice that Tosh and Owen's pile wasn't that big compared to Gwen or Ianto's, not that he gave me all of the stuff back either. It's made my job easier, but it can't have helped yours."

"I gave you back the Flat Holm stuff." Lucy pointed out.  
"Eventually."  
"Sorry." Lucy shrugged and not really that apologetic. "In the future I'll be sure to make sure you have every last scrap of paperwork possible - even though I am fully capable of doing it. I'll finish this lot and then not take any more."  
"Who were you on the phone to?" Jack asked suddenly changing the topic of conversation.

"Katerina Owens." Lucy replied pulling some paperwork from underneath Jack and starting to go through it, it was one of the UNIT files and started highlighting a few things that she would read again later and would do some more research into.

"Who?"

"Did you actually want anything apart from hearing for certain that I've been doing your missing paperwork?"  
"Who is Katerina Owens?" He asked again, Lucy put down the highlighter and stared at him.

"Jack, she's one of the highest female ranking police officers in the country, Chief Superintendent of the Cardiff Police force. She was calling about a particularly gruesome murder in outer Cardiff today, not too far from Splott - or Sploe if you're posh, or Ianto and enjoy correcting people about those kinds of things. I was chasing a weevil there earlier with Owen and popped my head into the crime scene while he was making sure she was ok and putting her in the back of the SUV to return to the sewers once she'd been tagged. It didn't look like one of ours but it was just a brief look, I'll check again properly tomorrow morning."  
"Why didn't I know about this?"  
"About what, the murder? Mainly because it doesn't look to be one of ours and therefore it's not on the system. It works the other way round Jack - we go in when we get suspicious not when the police are out of their depth, which is always. You know all this anyway Jack because I distinctly remember you repeatedly telling it to Gwen."

"Why were you on the phone with the Super Chief and when did you two get on first name terms?" He continued asking Lucy questions and Lucy was hoping that there was a method behind this madness.  
"We've been having weekly phone calls and monthly meetings since you left with the Doctor last year, after talking for that long it would be stupid to not be friends. She's one of the few people I know outside of Torchwood. I started the phone calls when I realised we needed a better relationship with the police especially when we had no idea who to call when Suzie locked us in; I had to bribe Swanson with Ianto's coffee remember? Anyway when it looked like no one else was going to do anything I figured I would do it. She was also the one who called us in about Sam."

"So you've been working on improving our relationship with the police, doing a decent chunk of my paperwork on tops of yours as well as the weapons archive. Plus you've got Ianto and Tosh making a proper computer archive _and_ you and Ianto are rewriting old pieces of paperwork. All this in the last nine or ten months?"

"Um, yeah I suppose." She shrugged. "Never really thought of it like that before though."  
"Like what?" He asked interested and she could see an idea form and solidify in his mind.

"Like I'm doing a lot of extra work. I'm just getting on with my job and doing what's needed. Like, Owen wasn't doing much of the paperwork when we split yours and Tosh was busy with her continual updates to the system so I did it. I started calling Katerina because _someone_ needed to and then she became a friend, it's not like it was a chore. It just became meeting up with a friend for coffee and complaining about work. Her husbands a nice bloke too and understands that I can't say anything about work in front of him, I feel like if I had met them when I was younger they would have tried to adopt me. Not that I would have let them, although they'd be amazing parents." She shrugged again and felt uncomfortable under Jack's stare. He scoffed at the idea of her 'just' doing her job and jumped off her desk, causing the previously neat piles to merge together into one big mess.  
"Put down that paperwork and follow me." Jack said as he strolled out, Lucy sighed and followed after him.

"Jack where the hell are we going?" She asked as they walked through the hub.

"You'll find out when we get there." He replied. "Tosh, Lucy and I are going out for a few hours. Ianto, I'll probably have her back for dinner"  
"Probably?" Lucy said loudly, finally catching up with him. "Jack where the hell are you taking me?"

"Right now? To the SUV."  
"And _after_ that?"

"After that you'll find out later. Just get in the SUV and trust me."  
"Ok." Lucy sighed playing with her plait. "Ok, I trust you Jack. I just wish I knew what you were doing or what you were thinking. I have actually got work to be doing you know. I've only been on the range for half an hour today, not done any practice with my knives, plus with Gwen away on her final wedding planning holiday it doesn't actually help, we're a man down and you want the two of us to disappear as well."  
"They'll be able to cope." He said determinately and Tosh and Ianto both agreed, Owen was currently in the cells checking up on Janet and Bob. "Anyway a few hours away from your desk for work related reasons is going to be good for you. Now come on, you deserve this."  
"Deserve what?"  
"You'll find out later Lucy. SUV, now!"

"Oh fine. I promise to stop asking because you blatantly won't tell me. See you later Ianto, don't wait up. I can reheat dinner." She kissed his check goodbye and started walking towards the car park and then turned back. "You coming Jack?"

"Yes boss!" Jack said jokingly, saluting at her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The journey in the SUV was spent with the pair of them talking about what felt like everything apart from why they were in the car. Lucy watched out the window as they drove closer and closer to the centre of London as the topic inevitably turned to work and what she had said earlier.

"So you think we should have our own official secrets act and change the whole boxing and storing of the property of dead agents?" Jack asked, Lucy had been wondering when he was going to bring it up.  
"Well yeah." She said with a small shrug. "I haven't got too far into my research yet, and some of the other secretive departments might be interested I suppose. But Gwen is technically in breach of contract – we all are and in this job that amounts to treason against the crown - since Rhys found out but it's saved their relationship and having Rhys on the outside is useful - you can't deny that." She said and Jack nodded his agreement but let her continue her point, and minor rant. "Ianto is pretty much completely cut off from his family as he can't explain why he suddenly has to cancel on them because of work - as far as they are concerned he's a public servant and they work Monday-Friday, 9-5. Not every day at random hours and always needing our mobile on because we could get called in any second. He can't tell them anything about what really happened in Canary Wharf, so they can't understand or even try to properly understand his reaction for the upcoming anniversary, and that cuts him off even more. He'd be separate from them anyway due to personality differences but this is more than that. Tosh's fine for now but her five years of service is over soon - I checked - and what's she going to tell her family when she goes and visits them and they inevitably ask about her job? You'd better give her at least a month's holiday by the way Jack, she deserves it. All of this because we can't talk to anyone. I'm just saying maybe close family members should sign an amended family secrecy act so we have someone we can talk to out of this place, someone who could keep agents grounded in real life. Surely Suzie was a prime example of why that's needed?!"  
"Doesn't that destroy the whole secrecy thing?"  
"Two answers to that, the first is we keep it to immediate family and partner, if they split up we could simply send someone over to make sure they stay quiet and keep them on a to be watched list, or just retcon them like we do with ex-employees. Secondly, pretty much all of Cardiff know about Torchwood, they just don't ask questions."

"You've been thinking about this for a while haven't you?" Jack said smirking

"Well it's hardly like I have anything outside of Torchwood, apart from my relationship with Ianto and before you say anything we do actually spend time talking about things that aren't related to work. And no you're not getting a threesome. But yes I've been thinking about it. I meant it doesn't really affect me but I can see its effect on Ianto every time his sister calls, and you can hardly limit your employees to orphans, people who have nothing else in their lives or try and wait for the rift to send you my replacement can you?"

"No" He laughed. "I suppose I can't. I'm not normally this lucky when the rift drop people off, but I suppose you know that."  
"Yeah."

"So I should ease up on the secrecy thing so I can get a better team?"

"I just meant that you can't limit the options, there must have been plenty of people in Torchwood's past who haven't taken the job because they haven't been allowed to tell their family. Gwen's the only one of us with a proper relationship outside of the team and she nearly lost that because she couldn't talk to him - you had a go at her for not trying enough but it can hardly be easy. We spend about 70% of our lives doing things that no one else will ever do, and can never imagine doing and we can't tell anyone."  
"You might have a point." Jack conceded.

"Let me do some research first, see if I can find out what other groups use, the history of the OSA and what's changed. But promise me you'll think about it."  
"You know technically it's not my call." Jack said as he turned the corner and Buckingham Palace came into sight. Lucy shuffled round in the seat so she was completely facing Jack.

"Ok, time for secrets is over. What the HELL am I doing here?"  
"Who's in charge of Torchwood, who do I have to give my reports to?" He asked, purposefully not answering her question.

"The Royal Family, but that doesn't tell me what I'm doing here with you. Is this some sort of sick joke?"

"Prince William is currently running the show, he lets us do want we want but makes sure that we don't go overboard and that I reign you guys in sometimes. Anyway he wants me to have a second in command, someone who gets effected by time and therefore will fight and question the rules that I accepted long ago and argues for change. Thought you might want it, so I'm taking you to properly meet your new boss. You'll still answer to me but with all your ideas I imagine you'll be talking to him quite often." Lucy just stared at Jack, she wasn't sure what she had expected him to say but that wasn't it.

"You're offering me what? Does he know the truth about where I come from?"  
"I promised to keep it in Torchwood, he's part of Torchwood so yes he knows but he doesn't care as long as you get the job done and don't destroy the timeline. And I'm offering you a promotion, 2nd in Command of the whole of Torchwood - now granted that's technically just us and Archie." He paused. "And Four if they ever turn up." He continued, and saw Lucy's unimpressed expression. "Listen, you've pretty much been doing the job since I left anyway, you may as well get the title and money that goes with it."  
"I get enough money as it is." She shrugged, focussing on the smaller thing first as she tried to come to terms with what Jack was offering her.

"Give it to charity, start a new charity, throw it out of a hot air balloon or go on a massive shopping spree every month for things you don't need but want in that instant you see them - impulse shopping but with an even larger bank account to back it up. You and Ianto could buy a house. I don't care what you spend it on but for the amount of work you're doing you deserve it."

"I went AWOL for two and a half weeks a month ago, is it really a good idea to give the job to someone who could flake out?" She didn't mention that they had started looking at houses in the Bay already, it was something they had decided to keep quiet until they found somewhere they liked.  
"But you came back."

"I have nowhere else to go."  
"That was true when you first turned up, maybe it was still true a year ago. But now... nah, you know how to escape if you wanted to. You wouldn't but you could. Besides I seem to remember that while you 'flaked out' and went AWOL you went up to Torchwood House, did a bunch of Archie's paperwork that I'd been ignoring for a while, as well as pulling him up to date about exactly how Torchwood works now. You did that in a week and then I put the other week and a half down as holiday, so actually according to our records – and you know how good our archivist is, he would never make a mistake – you weren't AWOL at all."

"I hate you." She said with a sigh.

"No you don't. Listen." Jack spoke seriously, losing the teasing tone in his voice and forcing her to pay attention. "You're good at your job. I took you on because I wanted to keep you close, you know our futures and my past and I didn't like that. But now, you're a brilliant agent both on and off the field. Our interaction between the police and other forces have never been as good, you've been doing a large chunk of my paperwork and I know you have plans to do more which gives me more time to work on my own projects. Just accept it when I say that you don't get more Torchwood than you, can you imagine ever doing anything else after this job? Even if I retconned you, you'd still be longing for the adventure."  
"No, I'd be in mental home or somewhere like Flat Holm because I'd be about 15 years old mentally and petrified of my father."

"I'd have to put extra people on the door so you wouldn't escape." Jack was teasing again now. "You'd be a flight risk, afraid and still mentally a teenager but I bet you could never stop looking for the adrenaline now. Admit it Lucy, you're addicted to Torchwood and you're already thinking of the good you could do with this promotion."

She turned back to gaze out of the window at the Palace as Jack was getting closer to the gates. This seemed to have come out of nowhere but she remembered how Jack had behaved when Sam had been here and he seemed to be watching her a lot more than he used to when she was working on her laptop on the sofa. This didn't seem to be a split second decision for Jack, he had obviously been thinking about this for a while.

"If I accept this, _if_, I do it my way and you've got to promise me you'll listen to my ideas. I don't just want to be a name on paper that you have because your boss is bugging you about it."  
"Yes ma'am." Jack laughed.

"I haven't said yes yet Jack. You don't have to accept promotions you know, I just want to be certain of what it would mean first." She said sternly but with a slight smile as Jack drew up to the gates and showed his security pass to the guard on duty.

"No yet Miss Smith, not yet." The gates opened and Jack drove through. "Welcome to Buckingham Palace."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

As they walked back out of the palace and towards the SUV, Lucy was struggling to get over the shock of what had just happened. In an attempt to see just how serious the offer was, she had thrown out some wild ideas and although most of them had not been accepted - Torchwood agents did not get a discount of Cadbury's products, nor did they had the right to try and kidnap UNIT agents as part of a training exercise. But somehow she had agreed to try and bring Torchwood back to its former glory, starting with opening up T2 (London) as a small 4 or 5 men team originally with plans to later expand and to eventually make Torchwood the 'go to' people in the UK and not UNIT. Nothing against UNIT, they were good at their job, and they had the Brig's daughter pulling them into the 21st Century, but it was a matter of pride and the right to boast in the conference calls and at the Christmas dinners.

Jack looked over at her and laughed.

"You might want to get over your shock pretty quickly, as of tomorrow its official. I can't backdate the promotion or the raise, although you will get a nice bonus for all the amount of work you've done in the past few months, I'm giving you and your lovely Welsh boyfriend of yours the morning off. I'd give you more but with the remembrance ceremony in just over two weeks and Gwen off for final wedding preparations..."

"No that's fine. Ummm thanks Jack, for the promotion and the opportunity you gave me when I arrived. And the ceremony is pretty much done, I've got a few more things to do and phone calls to make and need to find someone to run it on the day."  
"You've earned back everything I've done to help you since you arrived, don't worry about it. And maybe your new head of London can run it, any thoughts for who you want in that yet?"

"Well it needs to be someone who knows and will keep to the Doctor's ethos as well as being able to do what is needed in certain situations. So I was thinking... we can't have his daughter but the Brig has a nephew. He could be just what we need."  
"Keeping it in the family." Jack said with a nod. "I like it."

"I thought so, figured that if the Brig had been a good Uncle and I'm betting that Doris made sure he

was, he'll know about aliens and the Doctor and how to treat them or deal with different situations. If not he'll learn on the job or I'll find someone else. Plus I've been keeping an eye on him and he seems to fit the criteria."  
"Definitely worth a try. If we have a Lethbridge-Stewart running the place it'll definitely make people listen to us or pay attention and take notice."

"I thought that too." Lucy smiled. "Now, hurry up and get me back to Cardiff Captain while I call my boyfriend and let him know the good news - plus as he worked for Torchwood London he might be able to give me some ideas." She winced as she thought about it more. "Although, I'm not sure I want to bring it up straight away, not right now with the anniversary coming up. It'll bring up bad memories, but then I'm not sure I want to keep something this big secret either."  
"21st century relationships." Jack said with a small shrug and a frown. "Not something I can help with I'm afraid. Not proper serious girlfriend/boyfriend or whatever label you want to put on it."

"In the nicest possible way Jack, I wasn't really asking you."

"You know in the 51st century hardly anyone is monogamous, it's considered weird." She knew that he wasn't trying to be mean or to make light of her situation but knowing that didn't help.  
"Jack being monogamous has nothing to do with not wanting to tell my partner that I'm rebuilding the very organisation that nearly killed him, **did** kill his girlfriend and almost every single one of his colleagues. So if you can _please_ shut up for a bit and let me think." She snapped at him.

"Sounds like you've got over your shock" Jack said with a small smirk.

"Shut up and drive." But it wasn't as angry or waspish as before and there was a small smile on her face. He grinned at her and turned the radio on, allowing the rest of their journey to continue with a comfortable silence between them and the music playing.

As they drove over the Severn Bridge, Jack waving the government ID so they didn't have to pay, Lucy turned down the volume on the radio and called Ianto.

"Hi Yan." She said with a smile and giving Jack a warning look that he'd better stay quiet and not say anything stupid while she was on the phone. "We've just got back into Wales, so at the speed Jack's driving it'll be just under half an hour before we get home. Book us a place at a posh restaurant and I'll explain why we're celebrating as soon as I get back... ... All I'll tell you right now is that Jack has roped me into one of his stupid schemes.. ...nope... ... not that either... ...He'd better not be planning _that_." She glared at Jack. "I'll tell you when we go out, promise. See you in a bit... love you too Ianto. Bye." She hung up.

"What shouldn't I be planning?" Jack asked, wondering which one of his plans Ianto had told her.

"You shouldn't be trying to backward engineer the Master's laser screwdriver."  
"Ahhh. _That_ plan."  
"No, Jack." She said firmly.

"But if I make it isomorphic..." He tried not to whine, he was the boss of the organisation after all, but couldn't keep it completely out of his voice.

"It's going to be difficult enough to make it, the chances of you making it isomorphic as well is something that is next to zero. I'm not risking the possibility of a half working laser screwdriver existing and being taken out into the field. Plus sod's law says that you'll lose it."  
"I won't." Jack argued and Lucy just looked at him. "Ok so I might." he conceded. "But still. A _laser_ screwdriver. I mean come on..."  
"No Jack." She insisted. "At least wait until you completely understand the sonic before you try for the upgrade. You've just made me the second in command and promised to listen to me. Dammit Jack, actually listen to me. For the love of all that is holy do not make a laser screwdriver."

"Ok." He agreed pacify her and mentally planning to do it at a later date and using this as an excuse to speed up the plans for a Torchwood sonic screwdriver. "I won't make a laser screwdriver, a sonic one though..."  
"Would be brilliant." Lucy completed the thought for him. "Go for it." She said with a smile and a sigh. "Just promise me that the laser one isn't going to happen for at least two years _after_ you've made the sonic."

"Agreed." He said with a smile.

"I'll get that in writing later." She promised with a sigh, as they drove closer to Cardiff and she slumped back in her seat.

The rest of the journey was spent throwing ideas backwards and forwards about how the new Torchwood London was going to work, how they were going to break the news to the rest of the team as well as how they were going to work together. By the time they had pulled into the bay they had agreed that for the first six months or so London would run on a team the same size as Cardiff before expanding to a team of 20 or 30 people and then maybe another expansion another 6 months after that. They both firmly believed that this was something that could not and should not be rushed. As well as trying to get Nick Lethbridge-Stewart on board the other person that was going to be head hunted straight away was Martha. Lucy also planned on asking Sarah-Jane if she wanted to be an advisor or a special operative with the kids as her own, paid, team. It would allow them to continue with their own investigations as they always had done but the offer would mean that they wouldn't have to worry about being caught by the authorities as well as giving them a legitimate reason to miss school and extra tutors to help make sure they caught up on anything they missed and would make sure that they could receive the proper care for their injuries when needed.

Ianto was waiting for them and Lucy jumped out of the SUV to greet him.

"Let me get out of these work clothes and I'll tell you all about it."

"I was going to bring a geek top or something for you to change into in the car, but I wasn't sure what you wanted considering you requested a posh restaurant to celebrate."

"That's fine." She smiled at him. "I'm sure I can find something in my wardrobe good enough. How much time have we got back at the flat?"  
"Table's booked for half an hour's time." Ianto replied  
"Have fun." Jack waved at them. "I'll see you tomorrow lunch time and not a minute earlier."

"Lunch time?" Ianto asked, the confusion at spontaneously having the morning off wasn't showing in his face but they both knew he was waiting for one of them to tell him what was happening.

"It's a congratulations present from Jack to me, before all the hard work starts." Lucy supplied half of the answer. "Now let's get home, give me ten minutes or so to get changed and then we'll have a nice evening together. Don't worry, Yan. It's a good thing. I promise."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Jack called at them as he went back to jump into the SUV as they walked over to where Ianto had brought up the car.

"So we have permission to do pretty much anything. Thanks Jack!" Lucy called after him.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto's eyes widened and his jaw almost dropped open in shock as Lucy awkwardly walked out into the lounge where he had been sitting on the sofa waiting for her. She was wearing a tight fighting red dress with a single shoulder strap on the same side as her plait and the necklace he had bought her for her birthday, the dark red pendent sitting just above the fabric. When he spotted what else she was wearing his shocked look changed into amusement.

"Wow Lucy, that dress goes perfectly with those black leggings." His comment broke Lucy's awkwardness and she laughed.

"I thought so, Tosh didn't approve so much when she took me shopping."  
"When was that?"  
"After Becky's birthday and the whole Mary thing. She wanted some normal human company and got stuck with me. It's been hidden at the back of my wardrobe since then. I dunno." She looked down at herself and her low self-esteem was obvious. "You don't think it's a bit too much, I mean... I've not even got Cecil on me because it clings so tightly that its bloody obvious."

"No!" Ianto said quickly. "No, definitely not too much. You look absolutely amazing Lucy."  
"Yeah, but you're my boyfriend, you're supposed to say something like that." Lucy said quickly shrugging off the compliment.

"I'm saying it because it's true. Honestly, you look utterly beautiful. I'm going to be the one needing weapons tonight, making sure that no one else goes anywhere near you. I feel positively under-dressed seeing as all I did was change out of my work shirt into one that isn't blood stained. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your boyfriend and I 'have to'. I love you Lucy and you always look beautiful to me, even when you've got blood on your face and a gun in your hand. Now you've definitely got to tell me what we're celebrating that's made you dress like this. And I'll have to thank Tosh with chocolate and alcohol for taking you out and making you buy that dress, and tell me honestly how long did she have to persuade you to try it on, let alone buy it."  
"A long time." Lucy said with a small shy smile, she was never quite sure how to react when Ianto spoke about her like that, never expecting anything like it and thinking that he was lying to make her feel better. "She said she was going to buy it for me if I didn't buy it myself, and I was only tried it on because I was mucking around and because I had hired her a personal shopper and Tosh told her to find something for me." Lucy grabbed her leather jacket. "Come on Welshman, you'd better drive because you know where we're celebrating my promotion."

Lucy threw him the keys and as he caught them he realised what she'd said.

"Promotion?"

"Yup. I'm now the second in command of the whole bloody organisation. Which makes me technically your boss."

"You're amazing!" Ianto said with a grin and pulling her into a hug. "Absolutely amazing!"

"You won't be saying that when I'm giving you more work to do." She laughed. "Now come on, food!

"Yes ma'am!"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Lucy and Ianto walked into work hand in hand the next day, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at them. Previously Lucy would have blushed and tried to hide from it, but she had grown up since then – grown into herself.

"So you're my new boss then geek?" Owen asked jokingly.

"Definitely seems that way." Lucy replied. "It would be a bit difficult for you to get the promotion seeing as you're a zombie."  
"Hey, I could be insulted by that."  
"You mean you're not? I'll have to try harder next time. Fancy going back to working on whatever it was you were doing."  
"Is that an order?" He asked raising an eyebrow, the challenge he was issuing could be read by a blind toddler.  
"Actually, I've got something else for you to do when you get bored of your pet project. You too Tosh."

"Well now I'm interested." Tosh said crossing her arms as Ianto went to go get their coffee. "Does Jack know about this or are you relishing in your new role as second in command?"  
"No, I've been given permission for this, it's quite a big thing. Where's Gwen?"  
"Not due back until tomorrow."

"I'm not sure if that makes this easier or not. She's not going to be happy."  
"Yeah but when did you care about whether Gwen was happy or not?" Owen asked as he pulled off his lab coat, ready to hear whatever this new project was.

"I don't but it makes thing easier if we can at least pretend to be friends. She thinks that she's the second in command, especially after Jack leaving."  
"Well, she'll have to live with it. Although I would love to see her reaction."  
"I think Jack's planning on telling her in the same way he told us." Tosh said. "So come on then, what's this project?"

"I'm setting up Torchwood London again, I'll need your help to set up the individual departments. Owen can you write what the head of medical would need to know? – I'm hoping to persuade Martha to join us and I figure running the entire medical department should be enough of an incentive to leave UNIT."  
"Well she did a good enough job when I was... well when she was here. Hang on you're really going to rebuild London, after what they did?"

"Yeah." Lucy nodded. "Should be one hell of a project if you're interested."

"I'm interested." Owen grumbled. "Be interested to know why I can't head the department."  
"Two reasons. One, it involves working in London – something you swore to never to again. Two, you're dead. And oh there's a third – I want Martha. That enough for you? I mean you might not be heading the department but I would like it if you could work out the protocols and procedures, things like that. You are one of the foremost alien doctors on this planet, even if you're not among the living."  
"Yeah, ok. Could be fun."  
"I thought so. Tosh what do you reckon? Fancy being part of history and having your name as the foundation for Torchwood technology and how all tech agents should act on and off the field."  
"I always like a challenge." Tosh said as she turned back to her computer. "When do you want it done by?"  
"Just do it when you can, but the very basic outline ASAP preferably. I want to get a small team in London in place within the month. Nothing major but something I can work with, a team about our size really."

"And when do you want the full thing?"  
"Before it opens?" Lucy shrugged. "We've not got a timeline here, I'm going off piste."  
"I'm guessing this doesn't happen on your TV show?"  
"No Owen." Lucy agreed, "To the best of my knowledge this doesn't happen on the show but as long as I don't changed certain fixed events -"  
"Like me dying." Owen understood why she hadn't tried to stop his death and resurrection but he still wasn't happy with it. Lucy winced, Owen had no idea how close to the truth he was, she couldn't stop his death the first time and would be unable to stop it, or Tosh's, the second time.

"Yes, like your death." She agreed before continuing with what she had been saying. "There is no reason why I can't do other things behind the scenes to make our lives easier when I run out of knowledge. Besides it could be fun"

Owen just shrugged and left her talking to Tosh about different possibilities while he went back to his work station.

**A/N: So I had an argument with my laptop last night before putting it online hence no Author's Note. But I'm here now, let me know what you think about this new movement and ideas for how the new Torchwood London should run.**

**Rea**

**PLEASE REVIEW IT MAKES ME HAPPY**


	59. Chapter 59 - Canary Wharf

"Are you going to be ok?" Lucy asked as Ianto packed his bag for the night.

He kissed her, "I'll be fine, I mean it will be difficult. But I can't ask you to come, it's not fair on you. I'll call you tonight, promise. Now I've got to go in a bit or I'll miss my train and if you don't leave now you'll be late for work. Stop fussing."

She laughed before turning serious again. "Anything happens, or you decide that you don't want to be there, or you need anything..."

"I'll call you, go to work." Ianto shoved her towards the door, "it's my day off not yours."

"Not Gwen's either but you wouldn't have known that considering how many times she talked about wanting to go to this wedding thing. Do you know she even asked me if I could get you to change your day off? It's like she thinks that because I'm her boss now I'll suddenly start liking her because she has to do what I say."

"You've already told me. Get to work," She still tried to stall looking at him worried "now Lu. You're the boss after all, can't be late." Ianto repeated giving her a final kiss before pushing her towards the door again only this time she actually walked through it.

Lucy walked into the hub where Tosh was waiting for her. "He ok?"

"Nope" she replied, "He says he is, but he didn't sleep properly last night, he was tossing and turning all night. He cried when he thought I was asleep, not that I got any sleep either, but I couldn't let him know that. Neither of us have had much sleep the past week or so. He called me Lisa at one point last night, I think he was more upset than I was."

"It's bound to be difficult." Tosh said understandingly

"And I get that I really do, it's just upsetting that he's not talking to me about it. Although I suppose I deserve it."

"You don't deserve it Lucy, but it will take time. You know what Ianto's like with things like this, he only found out about the pizza delivery girl six months later, that was a huge shock."

"I know, and I know cutting myself off from him that time didn't help, I just thought we'd got past it. I still say he'd be better off with Jack – but he says it's me he wants. He's been brilliant recently especially with Sam, memories and me going AWOL." She shrugged "Anyway Ianto said he'll call me, when he gets there as well as this evening. I'm planning to go spend the evening with him, depends what time we finish. I haven't told him though, just in case I can't. I don't want to get his hopes up." She looked up at the BBC screen with the headline talking about the statistics from Canary Wharf. "I wish I could help him more. I mean I organised the whole thing and it's right that Nick, is there running it, but it feels wrong. I should be there, but then if I was there running it I wouldn't be with Ianto."

"The only thing you can do is talk and be there for him" Tosh shrugged, "he knows you're there to support him. You came up with the idea because of him after all."

"It needed to be done, it wasn't just Torchwood agents who died, they all needed to be remembered. I just hate seeing him like this and I know there is nothing that I can do, but... He turned away from me last night when he was crying as though he didn't want me to see him like that. You can't tell him I told you that!" She added the last bit quickly, not meaning to have told Tosh that much. She was pulled into a hug to try and calm her down and assuage her fears.

"It's going to be ok Lucy, not just for him but for you as well. You'll get through this together, he loves you he just doesn't want you to see him at his weakest. And I'm not going to tell don't worry."

"Thanks Tosh, I know you wouldn't but still... my mind is telling me that but my heart keeps telling me different things" She shrugged out of the hug as Gwen stormed in, and Lucy smirked at her. "How many times do you think she'll mention this wedding fayre thing?" Tosh could see Lucy was changing the subject but she didn't mind. She had been friends with Lucy long enough to know that Lucy was never comfortable to talk about her feelings and she only did with people she counted as her closest friends so she always felt privileged when Lucy properly talked to her and never minded when the conversation changed, plus she'd been getting annoyed at Gwen for the same thing as well.

"Too many. Do you think she knows what today is?"

"Been all over the news, and I was working on it for weeks, she must know. Not sure if it registers in her brain what it means though. But hey, now I'm her boss I'm within my rights to shout at her."

"Not that that's ever stopped you."

"Honestly, Jack" Gwen complained, "just a couple of hours off. It's all I want."

"No, we're already down one member of staff for the next couple of days, possibly two. I need the rest of the team here." Jack replied as he walked past towards Tosh and Lucy. "You two going to get any work done, or are you just planning on gossiping all day?"

"Why two?" Gwen asked, but Jack refused to answer.

The two girls smirked at Jack before smiling and going back to their desks, Lucy had reports to finish, plans to continue as well as training to do while Tosh had firewalls to set up. She was working with Ianto on getting all of the archives onto the system, along with photos and every piece of information they could. They wanted to set something up that would allow them to cross reference files for everything and anything and eventually have it set up to go across all Torchwoods. It had been Lucy who first casually mentioned the idea and the two had jumped upon it, determined to have a Torchwood Legacy. They'd had the beginnings of a computer archive before but it wasn't compatible with the new system that Tosh had put in place and was missing a lot of the older artefacts, although it had recent ones in as well from when Tosh has started. It had got to the point where it wasn't feasible for anyone to be able to use it in any useful way, Tosh was having a lot of fun pulling it up to date and connecting it from one item to another.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was later in the day and Gwen was still complaining about not being allowed time off for the wedding fayre she wanted to go to.

Lucy had more important things to deal with, she had the 24hour news on one of her screens, waiting for every update on the memorial for Canary Warf. Using the live feed to see when Ianto got there and how it was going, as well as watching as the other survivors arrived and supported each other. Nick was sending her regular updates and he had only called once about an issue that he wasn't sure how to deal with.

Lucy stopped working and watched as the news reporter retold the story of the 'terrorist disaster' that occurred in Canary Wharf and around London two years ago. The drugs that everyone had been fed through the water, that caused them to see the ghosts, and that made them susceptible to attack.

Gwen looked over her shoulder at the screen.

"Torchwood One brought it upon themselves really."

The hub went silent and Lucy broke it by dropping her mug and the sound of it smashing all across the floor.

"I'm sorry?" She asked, "Did you just say that they deserved it?"

"Well..." Gwen could see that she had got it wrong and that although she and Lucy often fought and pushed each other's buttons she had just massively stepped over the line.

"Because it sounded like you did." Lucy continued, her voice was quiet and deadly. The others decided that they were better off out of it, like they did with every argument between the two of them, although this looked to be a lot worse than normal. And, they couldn't help but think, rightfully so, Gwen had massively overstepped the mark with that comment. "It sounded like you said that those 587 people **should** have died. That they deserved to die, simply because they worked for Torchwood London. And that's not counting the innocents that the cybermen killed across the whole world, but it's all fine because Torchwood One _deserved_ it."

Gwen took a step backwards, wanting to get away from Lucy and the fury that radiated off her.

"27 people survived. Of those 27, 21 are able to get to the memorial today. 6 committed suicide, another 2 were committed due to their extreme PTSD and we had to ask for permission to take them out for the day. And they _asked_ for it?" She stepped forward and made the gap between her and Gwen smaller.

"Let me tell you something Gwen. None of those survivors knew what was happening. All they knew was that the ghosts had become monsters that were killing them. These were Torchwood agents, they knew what cybermen looked like and what they would do. And then there were the daleks, one of the greatest monsters in the universe, everyone at Torchwood knows the stories of the daleks and what they look like, so they knew they had next to no chance if the daleks found them. They had to climb over the dead bodies of their friends to escape; Ianto had to use his friend's bodies as sand bags, as a defence barrier from both cybermen and daleks, while they fought in front of him. The cybermen were taking the people they knew and turning them into monsters as well, and you think they deserve it. They quickly became aware that the things trying to kill them were people they had once spoken and laughed with. You think they brought it upon themselves?"

She pulled her gun out, and everyone stepped forward to stop her shooting Gwen, but she just shot at one of the glass windows.

"They had as much of a say in what happened you did when I pulled my gun out, for most of them even less. You've been spending the past week or so, complaining about not being allowed a day off. When you've been allowed more privileges then you should have had. I've had a boyfriend suffering from terrible nightmares, waking up calling different names, he repeats hardly any of them and they were _all_ his friends. And they all died. Before the disaster, he only knew one of the other survivors. He hadn't even seen half of them before and know they send regular emails because they need the support, from others who have been through that torture." She stormed forward, her gun still out in a threatening manner. "No part of your brain thought that Ianto might have taken the day off for a particular reason. You even asked me if he could change it. You have no thought of anyone apart from yourself, you think that you are the only person who has a life outside of the hub. You think you are the heart, the human part." She mocked the older woman "And yet Ianto is broken and still here, and still caring and still, being, human. You have no idea what they went through, how it can still be a struggle to get buy every day. You weren't even aware of Torchwood existence. He had a life before he came here Gwen, and the only thing to survive that life apart from Ianto himself was what was left of Lisa, is it any surprise that he wanted to save her? All you know of it is how hard we found it to deal with one partially converted cyberman, one that was lacking a lot of their normal weapons. Now try to think about how hard it is to deal with an army of them. Yes some of the higher ups of Torchwood London made mistakes but they had no way of knowing what was going to happen and when it started almost all of them gave their life to stop it."

"Lucy..." Jack decided he couldn't let this go on any longer. He put his hand on her shoulder in order to try and calm her down and he could feel her trembling in anger.

Lucy span round and threw the hand off.

"She said they deserved it. She said..."

"I know." He said as calmly as he could do, "I know, and trust me she'll be punished for it. But you need to calm down, it's not going to do anyone any good. You're her boss now, my second in command, shooting at walls behind staff isn't a good idea"

"ARGHHH!" The dark haired girl screamed in anger pulling on her plait. "I'm going." She stormed towards the door, shoving her gun back into the holster.

"Lucy!" Tosh called after her.

"I'm not staying here Toshiko, not when I have to work with such ignorance. Not today, not when I can see my boyfriend crying on TV. He hates crying let alone crying in public like that."

They all looked up to see that the news was still talking about it and that Lucy was right, they were showing the survivors and they could all see the tears rolling down Ianto's cheek unchecked.

"You give him our love" Jack commented, Lucy nodded and walked out of the hub. "And we'll see you both, when he's ready to come back to work. Let him have as long as he needs, just keep me informed." She nodded and walked out. "I know you'll both get on with some work at home, just make sure that he keeps his to a minimum."

Jack looked at Gwen, "I think we need to talk in my office don't you? Owen, tidy up this mess and be careful not to cut yourself." Gwen nodded and followed and Tosh helped Owen clean up the glass that was all over the floor.

Jack waited for Gwen to sit down before he spoke leaning over his desk.

"What the hell was that?"

"You saw what happened." Gwen replied quietly.

"I heard you say that Torchwood One brought it upon themselves. I heard you imply that everyone deserved to die. In fact, I heard you imply that it didn't really matter that Ianto was in that mess, that Ianto was one of 27 who lived through that."

"Lucy nearly shot me." Gwen tried to defend herself.

"But she didn't, she kept herself under control."

"She went mental Jack!"

"She was defending everyone who died, you heard what she said. Ianto hasn't been coping well with it, and she's the one who has to deal with that. Neither of them complain but both are broken souls clinging onto each other for any support. Now I'll speak to Lucy, I'll go round to their flat when they come home and discuss it with her. But, for now, you are on suspended for a week after they get back, I can't afford for you to be off while they are, and I'm not suspending you today because that would mean you can go to this wedding fayre you want to go to. I need you to think about what you said, you also need to apologise to Lucy and to Ianto. Get back to work" He stopped looking at her and went back to looking at his paperwork, a clear indication that he had nothing else to say to her.

Gwen was numb.

"Is Lucy going to be punished?" She asked.

"I'll speak to her separately. But that's not important, she's also your boss and it's not up to you if she is punished or not." Gwen just stood there in shock, waiting for something more. "Go!" The Captain said angrily and Gwen fled from the office, she kept her head down as she sat at her desk, so she didn't have to look at Tosh and Owen, she didn't want to see the anger and disappointment on hers friend's faces. However, she couldn't help but notice the screen that was talking about the statistics of Canary Warf. Everything that Lucy had said was right, not that she ever thought that Lucy was wrong.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was on the first train out of Cardiff to London, she had two hours to calm herself down before she had to be there for Ianto. It was difficult because all she could think about was the callous way Gwen had thrown out 587 lives as though they weren't important. She forced herself to focus on the image on the BBC news page, of the survivors and the tear on Ianto's cheek.

As she got into London and walked out of the station, she stopped at the flouriest she saw and got a white rose.

The closer she got to the memorial, the more the crowds grew and she had to push her way through, once she had Ianto in her sights she refused to let him go. The police at the barrier tried to stop her but she just showed them her security pass and continued to barge through, shoulder first.

The reporter was talking to Ianto, about how he moved on. So, she stayed by the camera, waiting for him to notice her.

"I struggled for a long time, we all struggled and still do, I would bury myself in work so I could just pass out from tiredness before I got up and the day started again. Thing improved slowly, I didn't need to pass out to not dream. I started getting on with my life." He finally saw Lucy smiling proudly at him, and he smiled back, "You helped a bit as well." He gave a small smile to Lucy and she gave him one in reply as the camera man pushed her into shot. She hugged Ianto and tried to give him every ounce of strength she could.

"I am so proud of you" She whispered and passed him the rose. Lucy knew that the country was watching but it didn't matter. Ianto needed her support and she was going to give it to him. He read the small note attached to the flower and gave her a sad smile holding her close trying not to let himself start crying again.

"What does it say?" The reporter asked, fully aware that he was treading on risky and very personal territory.

"It says, 'Lisa'" Lucy said when Ianto couldn't. "She was an important part of Ianto's life, and she was one of the last to die in the attack. Ianto was with her until almost the very end. I'd never let him forget her or think that I'd replaced her."

"So what's your story then?" he asked.

"I work with Ianto" She replied, "I was supposed to be there today but I saw the report and got on the first train."

"Are you proud of him?"  
"Immensely, just being here today is amazing. And then I find he's talking to you about it. Everyone here went through hell two years ago. The fact he is willing to talk to you about it shows you just how strong he is and just one of the reasons why I love him."

"Like I said, she helped me get here." Ianto said, as he got himself under control again absent-mindedly straightening his suit using it as his shield.

"Well there you go folks." The reporter said bringing it to an end, "amongst this tragedy, there is still love and hope for the people who survived that terrible day. Back to you in the studio."

The camera stopped rolling and the reporter smiled at them, "Thank you for the interview, I'm sure it touched many hearts. And your girlfriend appearing was amazing timing, what's your name?"

"Lucy Smith" she replied.

"Well your boyfriend is an amazing person, and I'm sorry for his loss."

"I know, thank you," She smiled, "Come on Ianto. Let's go somewhere more private." She gently pulled him away from the camera and the crowds.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

During the memorial, Lucy sat next to Ianto, she had started out just holding his hands but as the list of names and the tears grew she pulled him into a hug comforting him the best she could. Normally neither one of them were comfortable with public displays of affection but the normal rules didn't count today and Ianto needed every bit of support she could give him.

It was hard hearing all the names but they were all deserving of the respect, even Yvonne Heartmen; who had somehow managed to hold onto a shred of humanity through the conversion and did her duty for queen and country.

Next year, Lucy vowed, she would get a rose for everyone who died and make sure that each one had a label with their name on. Although almost every single one worked for Torchwood, most didn't work anywhere dangerous, or anywhere as dangerous as Cardiff. Torchwood London had a higher expected age, about a third of them lived to retirement. Those who didn't tended to die in their 40s or 50s, unlike Cardiff where it was unlikely for you to live much longer than your 30th birthday.

There would be a memorial wall in the new building for London, with the names of every agent who died, no matter what role they had in the decision making they deserved respect. Every one of them died trying to fight off the daleks or the cybermen or both. She would make sure that their sacrifice was not forgotten in the rebuilding of Torchwood. No one would forget the mistakes made in the past.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They walked to the hotel hand in hand and in silence when Ianto's phone went off, he looked surprised at the number calling him and answered.

"Rhiannon?"

Lucy could only hear one half of the conversation but realised immediately that this was Ianto's sister and squeezed his hand in support. She knew that Ianto's relationship with his sister was almost non-existent. He saw her every couple of months on birthdays and briefly at Christmas to exchange presents. He hadn't even told her about Lucy because he didn't feel the need to let her know anything about his private life. Rhiannon and Ianto Jones were two very different people. She had been happy to spend the rest of her life in the council estate with her long term boyfriend and children whilst Ianto had done everything possible to escape it and to see the world and make a difference. The last time they had seen each other was at their mothers funeral.

"I know... thank you... it's difficult with my job... yes I still work some weekends... no I'm not working Friday night... but it could change at the last minute..." he panicked a bit and looked at Lucy who smiled back reassuringly. "Yes I understand it wasn't the best way for you to find out... well I'm sorry if I embarrassed you" Ianto hissed down the phone at his sister, Lucy quickly pulled it out of his hand and spoke down it herself.

"Hi, Lucy here."

"You're Ianto's girlfriend? I'm his sister." Rhiannon seemed surprised that she was no longer talking to her brother but quickly got over it.

"I know" she replied, "What did you say?"

"What?" The Welshwoman was offended.

"I don't need to explain to you that Ianto has had a difficult day and that it's been a difficult lead up to today as well, and that the next few days aren't going to be easy. So what did you say to him to make him get angry with you? How did he embarrass you on TV? Because I thought as his sister you would have been damn proud that he was able to speak about how he struggled to cope afterwards."

"I was proud of that, but it wasn't the best time for me to find out he had a girlfriend and I didn't know. I had friends round and they asked me about you and I couldn't even tell them your name. We had to wait for it to come up on the screen. I couldn't even guess towards it because Ianto's never even mentioned you or told me anything about his life."

"Well I'm sorry if my being there for Ianto today embarrassed you. I'll make sure next time I don't do anything that could ruin your day. Because God forbid I support the man I love?!"

There was a moment of silence where Lucy thought she might have gone too far and then an unexpected reaction, Rhiannon laughed.

"I can see why he likes you. Listen, why don't you both come round the next time you both have off. If you work with Ianto you'll have stupid times to work as well I'm presuming."

"Err, yeah" Lucy was confused but decided to go with it. "We both have Sunday afternoon free though." She may have accepted the fact that Ianto didn't get on with his sister but that didn't mean she was happy about it, as far as she was concerned family is family and you do everything possible to help them. Plus she knew Ianto wanted to have a proper relationship with Rhiannon and the kids even if he never said anything about it. To her it was obvious in the way he always spent ages trying to find them the right presents when it came to their birthdays and how recently he had asked Lucy for advice and taken her with him. Plus he had them listed as his security contacts so if anything happened that could threaten Torchwood and family members they would be safe.

"Right well come round for Sunday lunch, I'll have it ready for about 2 if that's ok?"

"Sure. Um... sorry if I..." She didn't know what to say.

"Not a problem. I figure if my brother loves you enough to call you to talk about you like that on live TV then we should probably get to know each other. I'll see you on Sunday. Can you pass me over to Ianto again please?"

Lucy passed the phone over, and mouthed 'Sunday lunch, think she likes me'

"Yes Rhiannon, I heard. Providing something doesn't change at the last minute we'll be there... yes I know... I know that too... Lucy doesn't drink... that's fine... we'll come straight from work... bye Rhiannon... love you too" he hung up with a sigh.

"That was one way to tell the family."

"Let's just get you back to the hotel." Lucy said, "We'll curl up on the bed, order some expensive alcohol for you and charge it to Torchwood. And if we want to go out later we can and if we don't – that's what room service is for. Then we can get an early night, one or both of us will wake up from a nightmare, the other one will help. Then we'll wake up tomorrow and decide that we like the comfy bed and want it for a while longer, so we call down to reception and increase the booking for another night and again charge it to Torchwood. Then we go back to sleep, neither of us have had much recently. Jack won't mind in fact he hinted towards it earlier, oh and I might have almost shot Gwen, I thought I'd tell you before Jack does."

"I love you, and I'm sorry for what I've put you through this week" He said kissing her softly.

"It's not a problem, and I understand why you've not been talking with me. I'm not the best at talking about things like that either and I know you continue to wait patiently and you still know hardly anything about my past and the majority of my nightmares. I promise I'll work on it, but every time I watch one of my DVDs I'm reminded that you should be with Jack. And I'm working on it, I really really am, but it's difficult. I just don't get why you picked me at all and why you turned him down. But I can't lose you now, you mean to much to me."

"I'm pretty sure I just told BBC news that I love you, and I know I've told you you're forgiven, because you came back to me. In your own way you thought you were doing what was best for me. You were wrong, but you fixed it, you fix me. And I don't care about your past; you'll tell me when it's right for you to tell me. Do I want to know what makes you so scared? Of course I do. Am I going to push you about it? Of course not, because I _love_ you."

"You know," She grinned at him "I'm starting to believe you."

"Good, because I mean it." he grinned at her and they continued to walk back to the hotel. "Now what do you mean when you said you almost shot Gwen?"

"She was saying something stupid about Canary Wharf, and I got angry and shot the window beside her. Jack looked angry at what she said as well, so she's in trouble." Lucy shrugged.

"I'm not even going to ask what she said if it caused her to actually be in trouble with Jack."

"You don't want to know." Lucy agreed, "Let's just focus on sorting ourselves out. We're coming up to the hotel and I need to call Jack and let him know of our plans."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They drove up to the council estate in silence, Lucy wasn't sure what Ianto was thinking but she was pretty certain that he wasn't happy about the idea of her meeting his sister.

"If I could introduce you to my family, you know I would, don't you." Lucy said after he parked but made no movement to get out of the car. "I mean the one that matters anyway, wouldn't let you go within 100metres of my father."  
"I'd love to meet him." Ianto said with a grim smile. "Got a few things I'd like to say about…"  
"Yes well, I wouldn't let you for that very reason. We may be above the government and no court would punish you overtly if Jack even let the charges reach the light of day but I don't need you fighting my battles for me. I've dealt with him Ianto, he's in the past and I'm never going to see him again. I was never going to see him again before I came here. But I meant Becky, I'd take you to meet her."  
"She's not going to judge everything that you've ever done in your life though is she?"  
"I don't know for a kid she was annoyingly good at asking all the questions you don't want to answer. I think it's her way of showing that she's not affected by him and what he did. Not that I let him do much, but I was too late sometimes."  
"It's not your fault. You weren't too late he was just wrong." Ianto squeezed her hand. "He shouldn't have done that to her, to either of you. You shouldn't have to have been used to it." He added anticipating what she was going to say next. "It's not right Lucy and you know it."  
"It was just my life Ianto." Lucy shrugged. "I learnt to live with it and make the best of it. What I meant was, if you don't think any worse of me for my family, what makes you think I'll think any worse of you because of yours."  
"I grew up on the other side of this estate. Never wanted to come back here when I left."

"We both wanted better than we had and worked hard towards it, you went to London to uni and then joined Torchwood. And Torchwood only takes the best, you know that." He smiled at her and she could see that he wanted to leave and go back to what he was normally doing, fighting aliens and archiving what they found.

"We could leave." She offered. "Don't have to stay, I can call and apologise and say we were called into work, she'd believe me."

"I know she would, but I suppose I can't keep putting this off. Haven't seen them in a fair few months."  
"You do know that I'd fry Becky alive if she didn't see me for months. I mean I know we're different and special but still... I know its not the same but she's trying that's got to mean something. Let her try and get to know the kids and Johnny. You might never be best friends but she'll never stop being your sister no matter how much you might be annoyed at her. Besides she might not have tried since your mother's funeral but I know for a fact apart from sending Mica and David birthday and Christmas presents you haven't tried either. So go on, mush and apologise to her." Ianto laughed and opened the door, Lucy followed him part of the way down the street, she noticed a boy watching out of the window from the house they were turning into and presumed it was Ianto's nephew. She smiled at the memory of Becky watching out of the window on the few times when her friends came round (Lucy had been able to persuade her father that it would look odd if Becky never had anyone round, she had also paid for it in bruises later when he had forgotten and been surprised to see two girls playing with dolls when he got in from work).

"Grovel." Lucy murmured to him as he knocked on the door, there was the sound of someone rushing to the door and then a happy woman in her early 30's opened the door.

"Ianto!" The woman - Rhiannon - grinned and pulled her brother in for a hug and Lucy smiled slightly shyly at her. She had been pretending as though she had no problem meeting the family, and although she was looking forward to it, she couldn't pretend that she wasn't worried. Meeting the family was a big deal in any relationship.

"Rhiannon." Ianto said, eventually pulling himself out of the hug and taking Lucy's hand. "This is my girlfriend, Lucy Smith."

"Hi." Lucy waved, "It's good to meet you."  
"You too, although I only found out about your existence this week." Rhiannon made it sound both unimportant and like it was the most important thing in the world, Ianto winced slightly.  
"Yes, well, I was going to… but well… life and work. Can we come in?"  
"Of course you can." Rhiannon said moving out of the door, "Don't stand there like an idiot, David, will you take Uncle Ianto and Lucy's coat and put them away for me?" She called up the stairs and a 10 year old boy shouted back in reply.

"Yeah…"  
"NOW David!"

"Coming." There was a rush of feet as a 10 year old ran down the stairs, jumping the last few.

"Hi Uncle Ianto."  
"Hi David." Ianto replied passing over his jacket and a £10 note, Lucy pulled her coat off too and gave Ianto a 'look' which he decided to ignore.

"Well come on into the lounge then, Mica, your Uncle Ianto and his girlfriend are here."  
"Hi." Mica said glancing up from what she was watching on TV as Ianto passed her some money and then returning to the cartoon on the screen. This time Ianto could not miss her 'look', it was one thing to spoil nieces and nephews but another to simply give them money and not a hug.

"You've got a lovely house." Lucy said, by way of saying something. "Mica and David are nice too."

"If I can get them to socialise." Rhiannon replied, "But thanks. Do you want to sit? I meant to move all the stuff off the sofa, but got too busy cooking dinner. David promised to help…"  
"It's not a problem." Lucy replied trying to appease her boyfriend's sister, she knew what it was like keeping an eye on a child while doing everything else.

"No, I meant to have a tidy house, good impression and all that."  
"Trust me," Ianto said. "It's not a problem, Lucy is good at storing things on the floor."  
"Yeah…" Lucy agreed before realising what he said. "HEY, I'm not that bad."  
"You have piles of books on the floor and just throw your used clothes towards the wash basket and call 'goal' if it goes in."  
"The piles of books are because we don't have enough shelves. You are just want a freaky level of clean." She turned to Rhiannon. "Is his OCD level of tidying something that has always been there? Cause I mean yeah at work it's useful - we'd be lost without him - and it makes him a good archivist but I seriously, you're supposed to relax at home."

"He's always liked a tidy house." Rhiannon said with a laugh. "Mica you'll have to stop watching that when Dad gets back, we'll be eating then sweetheart."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The lunch could not be described as anything apart from awkward. Rhiannon was trying to make small talk but as work was not a feasible conversation for either of the Torchwood agents and Lucy didn't want to discuss her life before she had met Ianto with a virtual stranger, the possible topics of conversation were more than limited.

"So how did you two meet?" Johnny asked, he had obviously been warned to be on his best behaviour and not to scare away his brother-in-law and his girlfriend away

"It's like Lucy just fell into my life from the sky, didn't you Lucy?" Ianto asked with a smirk and an innocent tone of voice.

"Work." She said once she'd stopped coughing from shock at Ianto's answer it appeared that meeting his sister and her family again meant he returned to be as sarcastic as possible as well as wanting to subtly one-up his sister. "We met through work."

"Well, that's not quite right. We met before you signed up"

"Shut up." Lucy hissed

"And it was like you'd known me for years." He continued to taunt her which seemed to help him forget that he was having Sunday Lunch at his sister's house. Lucy rolled her eyes knowing that he wouldn't stop and that he'd managed to pique everyone curiosity.

"I'd collapsed in the middle of the Plass." She explained using an OSA safe version of the truth. "Ianto and the rest of the team happened to be passing by and were the first to get to me. I was fine but they decided they needed to keep an eye on me for a bit and by the end of the end I had impressed them enough that Jack offered me a job."

"Why did you collapse?" David asked with his mouthful, Rhiannon tried to admonish him but Ianto replied before she could get further than 'you don't ask people those kind of questions like that'.

"Lucy hadn't been eating properly or looking after herself. She's not very good at remembering to eat."

"How do you forget food?" Mica seemed interested at the idea of someone forgetting something so simple.

"By being distracted and focussing on other things." Lucy replied. "But your uncle has made sure I eat properly now so I haven't collapsed since."

"At least not because of that." Ianto murdered as he took a drink and Lucy kicked him under the table.

"I'm fine, I was fine. It's all fine. This is really tasty by the way Rhiannon." There couldn't have been a more obvious change of conversation but they rolled with it anyway.

"Thank you. It was our mam's recipe."

There was silence for a while as they all ate before Ianto it asking how busy Jonny was at the construction firm he worked at.  
"Oh, aye, it's not too bad. Can't complain, there's regular work" Lucy's phone went off and she excused herself from the table muttering about how it was work. "I don't get called in at the weekends and on no notice." He called after Lucy and she knew the comment was meant for her to hear as a jibe against 'civil servants'.

"_You wanted me to call?"_ Tosh said on the other side of the phone  
"Yeah, we're just eating lunch." Lucy replied, just in case she could still be heard by the table. She hadn't told Ianto that she had an exit strategy planned, just in case. "Any chance it can wait?"  
"_Meeting the family going well then?"_ She could almost hear the laughter in Tosh's voice.  
"Can't you ask Gwen... she's got wedding stuff." Lucy pretended she was answering her own question rather than making up the whole conversation "Fair enough. Do you need both of us?"  
Ianto had obviously excused himself from the table as well to see what was wrong, fully aware that if it was a Torchwood emergency they wouldn't have been summoned to work by a call, it would have been a text. Jack never bothered with anything as personal as a call when a text to all of them was quicker. 'Tosh', Lucy mouthed at him as he raised a questioning eyebrow at her.  
"_Don't actually need either of you. The rift is quiet."_ Tosh commented, "_Jack's told me to go home and he'll keep an eye on it."_  
"Just me then? And Jack says Ianto should enjoy the most of the day with his family and apologises for pulling me away?" Ianto rolled his eyes at her blatant overacting and Tosh laughed down the phone.  
"_You're terrible"_  
"Ok, bye Tosh. See you as soon as possible." She said hanging up before turning to Ianto. "Work calls."

"I'm really sorry to have to leave during dinner" Lucy apologized as she reentered the kitchen/dining area. "But I've been called into work."  
"The pair of you?" Rhiannon asked  
"Just me. Owen's ill and I need to cover for him" She knew that Ianto had already guessed that she was making an excuse to get out of there, but just in case he hadn't the final message of Owen being sick was the clincher. It wasn't possible for the dead to get ill, even if they were still walking.  
"Nothing serious I hope."  
"Oh just food poisoning, ate something he shouldn't. But that's the downside of the job. I get called in first, Ianto can stay. I shouldn't need him."  
"I'll call you a taxi." Rhiannon said getting up from the table as well.  
"Don't worry about it, I'll take the car and come back later if possible. If not I'll see you at home Ianto." She gave him a quick kiss and waved at the others. "It was nice to meet you"  
"I'll see you out" Rhiannon said, still standing as her kids and husband waved back and then returned to their food.

"Thank you for coming, Lucy. Even if it was only for a bit." Rhiannon said as Lucy grabbed her coat from where it was hanging over the banister.  
"No problem. It really was nice to meet you, and I'm glad that I didn't have to draw Ianto away as well. Hang on.." She grabbed a piece of scrap paper and scribbled down her mobile number. "That's my number, don't be a stranger and let me know what time Ianto leaves, just in case he forgets to tell me."  
"Is there _really_ any reason for you to go into work?" it was easy to see in that instant how she was related to Ianto as she had the same look on her face, Lucy was fully aware the game was up.  
"There's always paperwork to do, but no not really. I just figured it was tense enough without me being here too. It was nice to meet you though, and for the record Ianto never stopped keeping an eye on you four even when you weren't talking."  
"Yeah, well he's an idiot."  
"I know, smartest idiot I ever met but still an idiot of the highest order. Anyway, I'd better get a head start on that paperwork. Bye Rhiannon."  
"Bye Lucy, good to see you too. Don't be a stranger, either you or Ianto. I might have only just found out about you but even I can see that you're good for him."  
"Thanks." She finished pulling her coat on and left the small house.

**A/N I really don't like this chapter but I couldn't work out a way to improve it and to my mind it's quite important so here you go. However because I love you and I don't want to give you a bad week have a double update!  
Rea**


	60. Chapter 60 - Something Borrowed - Part 1

**A/N: Welcome to part 2 of todays adventure to make up for the other chapter not quite feeling right!**

Lucy walked into to work hand in hand with Ianto and only Tosh was in the hub.

"What happened?" Ianto asked as they all stood round the coffee machine as Ianto started making them their first coffee of the day.

"Something's up with Gwen." Tosh replied, "She called Owen and Jack earlier. You know anything about this Lucy?"

Lucy shrugged "She ends the day as Mrs Williams, the bit in between is a bit messy, she's pregnant with the baby of the shape shifter last night." She smirked and shrugged enjoying the looks that Tosh and Ianto gave her

"Pregnant?" Tosh spluttered

"Yup,"

"_Any_way." She took the mug from her boyfriend. "It doesn't change the fact that, right now, we have work to do and we're a person short. Ianto can you continue working on the archives? How many shape shifters have we seen in the past? What do we know about them? – make that the priority." Ianto nodded "Tosh, that translation software you nicked from UNIT a year or so ago, word is from Nick that Kate had mentioned it had gone through a fair few updates since then. Can you get them for me and then compare with what we've already got. I don't like the idea of UNIT being ahead of us, and if you can allow them to steal a basic one of ours so they don't get suspicious it would be brilliant. Oh and be careful, it could be a ploy of theirs to get more of our software. Jack'll probably send you to the wedding but if you could at least make a start on it, that would be great."

"It's going to take a while. They've got a new head tech by the looks of it, the style has changed which makes hacking them harder. And don't worry I'll keep an eye out."

"No problem Tosh, you're brilliant. Also next week is your fifth birthday at Torchwood. I'm throwing you a party and when Gwen comes back I've booked you tickets to fly out and see your family for three weeks. So if I could get that software before you leave it would be brilliant."

Tosh stared at her before nodding and smiling shyly, "Sure, not a problem, I can do that, and thanks Lucy... I mean you don't have to..."

"Hey" Lucy said softly, "Five years in any job is a long time especially in this one. You deserve to be free of us for a while."

Tosh froze at the word free before quickly giving the second in command a quick one armed hug and then ran off to her desk to get on with the work.

Ianto stood behind Lucy slightly confused, "what was that about?"

Lucy leaned into him and shrugged, "She's a free woman as of next week. You know the reasons she joined. I know you've read the file." Lucy didn't feel bad talking to Ianto about the general reason behind Tosh joining Torchwood because she knew that Ianto had read all of their files when he was sorting out the archive and that included a brief summary of how they were recruited. Lucy's was summed up in four words 'stolen by the rift'.

"I hadn't realised her five years were up."

"Hmm" She said as she started to drink her coffee, "I don't think she had either. She's not got plans to leave but that doesn't change the fact she can now if she wants to."

"Apart from the retcon." Ianto said with a smirk

"Apart from that." Lucy said before standing straight again, "Come on, just because you're sleeping with your boss doesn't mean that you can get out of working. Besides I've got stuff to be getting on with as well."

Ianto laughed and the two walked into the main area of the hub as the alarm for the cog door opening went off and Owen and Jack walked in.

"How is she?" Tosh asked them. "Lucy told us what's wrong with her."

"She's going ahead with the wedding." Owen said as Jack looked at Lucy annoyed.

"Which is fine, as long as she doesn't go into labour at the altar. Rhys might forgive her for going down the aisle pregnant but not for giving birth to a razor-toothed monster that eats people. You could have given us some warning." Jack said rolling his eyes at Lucy, "I think Gwen might have liked that."  
"You know I can't" Lucy replied firmly. "Besides, did you really think she was going to cancel her wedding?"

"I had hoped." Jack shrugged, "Ok, Tosh you've got an early pass to the wedding, Owen I want you to look at our friend down there – see if you can find out what we're dealing with. Lucy, Gwen's going to need a new wedding dress. Bigger. You and Ianto go deal with that. You might have an idea of what to look out for and Ianto knows measurements and things like that - see if you can get some ideas for yours as well – we're expecting an invitation any day soon."

"Shut up" Lucy laughed, "we've not even been together a year."

"Almost though." Jack said with a smirk.

"Yeah, if you don't count the three months I dumped him for, _or_ the three weeks I went AWOL." Lucy replied.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ianto interrupted

"Why do you not want to marry me?" Lucy said turning to face him with a pout.

"Well..." Ianto started to go slightly red but the others all laughed,

"You got yourself in trouble now tea-boy" Owen smirked and then jumped out of the way at the stapler Lucy threw at him. "Oi that's violence in the work place."

"You're dead." Lucy shrugged, "I don't think it would stand up in a court of law; besides we're outside the government." She turned back to Jack, "Any idea what dress she wants or exactly how big she is?"

"Something pretty and no idea." Jack shrugged

"She's about 8 months gone." Owen said, "So look for dresses that size."

"My father was a master tailor" Ianto said purposefully not catching Lucy's eye as he said this so she wouldn't call him up on the lie. "I know the size we'll be looking for."

"I said he would know measurements" Jack smirked, "I know whose got an eye for these things"

"I'm not sure if I should be worried that you've been looking at Gwen or just laugh." Lucy said with a smirk before grabbing her coat. "Come on then Ianto, it's the date you've always dreamt of. Taking your girlfriend wedding dress shopping for another woman."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They stopped at the first shop they saw in town and Lucy hung back as Ianto went to walk in.

"I've just got to make a quick phone call. You go in ahead of me and I'll try and get this sorted as quickly as possible."

"Who have you got to call?"

"Nick." Lucy said with a shrug, "Let him know that Torchwood Cardiff is out of business for the day and although we're not expecting any other trouble he may be needed. He knew we were going to be busy later but he should be informed the schedule has changed. What we have of London is in control for the rest of the day."

Ianto nodded and understood, "Sure. I'll see what I can find, don't be long yeah?"

"I'll be as quick as I can." Lucy promised, "Also for the record, I'm not trying any dress on. Gwen and I have different shapes so it wouldn't be worth it anyway."

Ianto nodded again and walked into the shop; instead of phoning Nick, Lucy sent him a quick text and then watched through the window until the shop assistant walked over to her boyfriend. It may be cruel but it was also very funny.

"Can I help you sir?" The man asked Ianto, Lucy quickly slipped inside the shop and out of sight.  
"Yeah, I'm looking for a wedding dress for a friend." Ianto replied as though it was the most normal thing in the world, Lucy tried not to laugh at the sight of him holding it against himself – honestly what was the other man supposed to think?

"Of course you are sir," The man said while giving Ianto the once over, "You'd be surprised we're quite used to men looking for their 'friends'" And with that he walked away to talk to the other woman in the shop. Lucy stepped out of her hiding place laughing at Ianto's expression.

"You knew!" Ianto hissed and Lucy tried to stop laughing, but as her boyfriend was still holding the dress it made it very difficult.

"Course I knew." Lucy laughed, "But it was too bloody funny to stop it. Besides it didn't hurt anyone. Stop holding that bloody dress like that..."

Ianto put the dress down and smiled as well.

"I suppose it is a bit funny."  
"A bit?" Lucy said having finally got control over herself. "It's bloody hilarious is what it is."

"When you've finished laughing, what do you think about this one?" Ianto asked with a smirk

"It's nice enough." Lucy replied, "But doesn't really stand out as Gwen..."

"I know what you mean." He said putting the dress down, "Leave this as a maybe?"

"Yeah ok. You look on that side I'll look on this one." Lucy got up from where she had sat down and started to look at a row of dresses, each one looking almost identical.

"Lucy..." Ianto said after five minutes of comfortable silence between them

"Hmm?" She replied.

"Looking at all these dresses, and the others joking earlier. Well I was just wondering..."

Lucy stopped what she was doing and stared at him,

"Ianto, are you ... are you proposing to me?" She said quietly

"No" he said quickly "I don't think I am, anyway." He added after a small pause.

"You should probably know before you ask." Lucy said shifting from foot to foot awkwardly

"I was just wondering if this was making you think you _might_ marry me. One day." Ianto said quickly

"I'd love to marry you." Lucy replied, "But when it's ready for us" She continued at the look of shock and slight worry on Ianto's face. "Right now it's not and that's fine. But I love you and I'm planning on spending the rest of my life with you, marriage is something that's potentially down the line but I can't imagine a situation where I'd say no."

"So... did I just propose or not?" Ianto asked.

"I think I just agreed that I'd say yes when you propose." Lucy replied with a small laugh blushing a bit.

"You look cute when you blush." Ianto teased causing her cheeks to turn even redder and so she glanced away.

"We still need to find a dress for Gwen." She said

Ianto sighed and nodded.

"I wish we could just bunk off." He muttered under his breath as he kissed her, and Lucy smirked.

"Perks of sleeping with the boss who knows the future, we'll sneak off once Gwen is married. I may have booked us a room at the hotel for after we've dealt with this. We will be tidying up till the early hours though."

"Have I said how much I love you?" He asked

"I think you might have mentioned it in the past." She joked, "Now come on Ianto, we're on a pretty tight time limit here to find a dress that doesn't need to be altered for an 8month pregnant woman. We need to get to work"

"Yes ma'am" Ianto said with a small salute

"Idiot." She laughed before turning back to the rack of dresses.

Ten minutes later they could not believe their luck and were walking out of the shop hand in hand, the male shop assistant looked a bit confused at the pair of them but they just laughed it off.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When they got back into the hub they separated again, Ianto slipping down the stairs to the archives while Lucy put the dress box on Tosh's desk and walked over to where she could hear Tosh and Owen talking

"God you need a date, don't you." Owen said before quickly adding, "Which this isn't. Is it?"  
"No Owen, it isn't." Tosh replied, "I just want you to come to the wedding. Please."

"Yeah all right. I'll dig out my dancing shoes."

Lucy decided now was the time for her to let them know she was there.

"I've put Gwen's dress on your desk Tosh, you look stunning by the way. Owen, any idea what this thing is yet?"

"I've only just properly started." Owen complained while Tosh blushed a bit.

"Well you'd better hurry up then." Lucy said with a shrug. "We've got three hours before she walks down the aisle. No shifting the deadline for this one, not like you normally do."

"I'm going to put the dress in the car and get going." Tosh commented, "Do you need me to do anything else before I go?" She check with Lucy who shook her head.

"Go have fun Tosh, but don't forget your gun. We'll join you later."

"Ok, bye."

"See ya."

"Bye Tosh."

Lucy immediately turned to smirk at Owen once Tosh was out of hearing sight,

"So you've got a not-date with our Toshiko then."

"Shut up" Owen grunted as he got back to work, Lucy just sat down on the steps.

"You do realise that if you don't treat her well enough I'm going to kill you, again, don't you."

"You already gave me this talk when I agreed to go out on that date with her before I died."

"I know. But now I'm reminding you. It isn't just you who's lost something with your death, she has too."

"I know." Owen sighed

"She's completely in love with you, just like I love Ianto and Gwen loves Rhys. The only problem is we realised it while we were all still alive. Actually that's a lie, she was fully aware of her feelings before you died, it's just you somehow had no clue."

"I got there a bit late didn't I?" He said sighing again as he continued his dissection

Lucy gaped at him.

"You mean you're actually admitting that you might possibly be in love with Tosh? Or you at least _like_ her a lot?"

"You heard what I said." He growled, "Now am I going to be able to get on with work or are you going to continue to gossip?"

Lucy got up from the steps.

"For the record Owen, I still think you could make it work." And with that she walked away leaving Owen to his thoughts and an alien to dissect.

Lucy walked up to Jack's office just as he called Gwen.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Jack asked as Lucy sat on the desk. "I just want to let you know that Tosh will be with you any time. Call it moral support."

Lucy heard Gwen say something and then Rhys' voice, she quickly stole the mobile.

"_-at all Jack. You've already done enough damage."_  
"It's Lucy" She said quickly before he could hang up

"_What do you want Lucy?"_ Rhys asked but he seemed calmer. He got along a lot better with Lucy a lot better than he did with Jack, Lucy was sure that part of it was the mutual dislike between her and Gwen. Rhys was absolutely certain that they weren't going to jump into bed together, he couldn't say the same about Jack no matter how much he loved Gwen.

"Just to tell you that we are going to do our best to make sure everything goes as smoothly for you as possible. Ignoring the fact you don't like Jack, and Gwen and I don't get along. Can you please trust me to make sure we all do our jobs? All you need to worry about is getting her name right, Gwen will forgive us for her being pregnant with an alien baby eventually, you'll never hear the end of it if you get her name wrong. Ok?"

She heard Rhys sigh,

"_Ok_." He agreed

"Tosh is on her way down with a new dress for Gwen, can you please remind Gwen that she's not a baby sitter? She's a friend who's doing all she can to help. And for the record Gwen went out into the field last night because we had no choice, none of us would have let her go otherwise. We weren't happy about it either."

"_Ok_." Rhys agreed, "_I'll let her know. Thank you."_

"No problem." Lucy replied, "We'll probably see you later."

"_Yeah, bye."_ Rhys hung up and Jack looked at Lucy.

Jack looked at Lucy.

"You know more about this then your letting on don't you?"

Lucy shrugged.

"Do you really think the writers aren't going to give Gwen a Torchwood wedding, come on..."

"Why didn't you say?"

"I was hardly going to tell Gwen that she would be walking down the aisle pregnant with an alien baby while it's mother was trying to kill her was I?"

"It's mother?" Jack asked as Owen burst in

"Jack? We've got a problem"

"Look what our friend was hiding," Owen said picking something up from a tray in the morgue

"And that is?" Ianto asked when it appeared neither Lucy or Jack were going to.

"A proteus gland." Owen said inspecting it. "A shape shifting organ of a nostravite."

"And that is..."

"Trouble." Jack answered, "Lots of trouble"

"So" Lucy asked with a small grin, "Anyone else fancy going to a wedding? I'll go get the SUV ready and see you outside in five."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy and drove up to the invisible lift where Jack, Owen and Ianto were waiting for her, even if she couldn't see them.

"Tosh isn't responding." Ianto told her, he was the first to step off the stone

"Let's get going then." Owen added as he appeared and opened the car door, worry in his voice that they could all hear.

"Are you sure you're ready for this Owen?" Jack asked, "You know what a Nostrovite can do. You think you've got it covered 100feet away and it's already chewing on your liver."

"I don't need my liver." Owen replied. "You need me Jack."

Lucy leant over the steering wheel

"And to be fair he'd almost completely ruined his liver before he died anyway."

"Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. The Singularity Scalpel, where are you going with that?" Jack said, stopping Owen from getting in the car.

"We need to get to Gwen before the Nostravite does, we might not have a chance to get back to the hub and the microtron weighs about two tons."

"Errr..." Ianto couldn't help but interrupt, "that thing kills people."

"I saved Martha with it."

"Lucky shot."

"It'll work." Lucy said over their arguing, "Trust me if we don't take it, Gwen is dead anyway so let's move!"

"I've been working on it and I reckon I've got it sussed," Owen said as he got into the car, "besides as Lucy just pointed out with that Nostravite around we really don't have that many options."

"He's got a point." Ianto agreed

"What is it with you?" Jack asked as he got in the car as well, "ever since Owen died all you ever do is agree with him."

"I was raised to never speak ill of the dead." Ianto said deadpan "even if they do most of the talking for themselves."

Lucy caught his eye in the mirror and the minute Jack shut the door she started to drive.

"How much further?" Owen asked

Lucy growled and Ianto quickly put his hand round her chair and squeezed her shoulder to calm her down.

"A minute less then when you asked last time." He replied for her, "maybe if you stop acting like a child and asking if we're nearly there Lu might be able to concentrate properly on driving and not killing you."

"Alright alright I was only asking" Owen said, "Anyway, what happened to not speaking ill of the dead?"

"Owen if you keep this up you'll be the only man on this planet apart from Jack to have been killed more than once. Ok?" Lucy threatened.

"Ok, ok, calm down." Owen grumbled

"What I don't understand is if people are going to make such a big deal out of getting married why come all the way out to the middle of nowhere where no one can find you to do it? That, to me, suggests inner conflict."

"It's because that way they have an excuse not to invite certain people or that the people they feel they need to invite but that they don't actually want to be there have a reason for not going." Lucy replied with a smirk

"OR because the happy couple want everything to be perfect." Ianto said  
"I think of the two offers on the table, Lucy's probably right." Jack said.

"Thank you." Lucy replied, "I normally am."

Lucy pulled up outside the building and jumped out of the car, a split second behind Jack. "Park the SUV for me" she shouted at Ianto before running after the WWII Captain.

"STOP!" Jack shouted as he ran into the ceremony. "STOP THE WEDDING!"

"Jack you utter idiot" Lucy shouted as she ran in after him, deftly hitting him across the head, "You just want the attention."

Jack looked at her, shrugged and smirked before looking back at Gwen,

"We've got to get you out of here"

"Sorry about the shitty timing but we need to get you out now!"  
"I just knew that baby wasn't Rhys'." A woman in blue said standing up from where she was sitting.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Rhys hissed at Jack

"I told you I am marrying Rhys."

"We know you're marrying Rhys and that's great, it really is congratulations all round." Lucy said sarcastically. "However, maybe not the best idea to marry him when there's an alien around that wants to rip you open. I don't know about you but I think that would put a downer on your special day."

"What's going on?" Rhys asked "If this is just you trying to screw up our wedding like you've screwed up our lives in the past..."

"Do you really think I would do that?" Lucy asked annoyed that he thought that little of her, "Do you really think I would run into Gwen's wedding at random and say it needed to be cancelled. I know Gwen and I don't get along socially but I would never do something like this on a whim Rhys."

"Calm down Lucy." Gwen said suddenly, "She's right Rhys, she wouldn't do it, neither of them would. What did you mean about someone want to rip me open?"  
"We're trying to save your life here." Jack whispered, "Can we please talk about this somewhere else?"

Gwen nodded, she grabbed Rhys' hand and pulled him back down the aisle, Lucy and Jack followed.

"I'll just quickly deal with this lot." Lucy said at the door.

"Thanks." Jack said, before following them up the stairs trying to explain what was happening as quickly as possible

"Ok can I have everyone's attention please!" She said loudly over the muttering that had broken out, she didn't need to ask because everyone's eyes were on her already. "Ok I would just like to say that Gwen and Rhys are completely in love and my boss is definitely NOT the third person in the relationship. This wedding is being postponed due to other reasons."

"What's going on?"

"Who are you?"  
"Where have they gone?"

Questions broke out and Lucy raised her voice again,

"I'm Lucy Smith, Gwen's boss. Listen it's a security problem so Gwen and Rhys have been moved to somewhere safe."

"Are we safe?" Panic broke out and Lucy sighed

"Just be extra careful, Gwen is the main person we're worried about right now and due to her being pregnant we want her out of the way so we can focus on the threat. Just stay in the surrounding area and don't wander out of the sight of others. We're going to fix this as soon as we can but we need your co operation. Thank you."

**A/N: In contrast I love my chapter for 'Something Borrowed' and Part 2 should be even better.  
See you next week**

**Rea**


	61. Chapter 61 - Something Borrowed - Part 2

"We're not stopping the wedding." Gwen said as Lucy walked into the bridal suite

"I'm me." She said as they looked at her, "Becky's in another world" She added at Jack's hand on his gun and his raised eyebrow, at the added piece of information he relaxed a tad and Lucy stepped into other room properly now that she had confirmed she wasn't an alien shape shifter.

"Lucy, please tell Gwen that's not an option." Jack said with a sigh

"It's really not a good idea Gwen." Lucy said sternly.

"Ever since I met both of you all Rhys has had to put up with with me is crap. The lies, the danger, the complications. But he stood by me. Who else would do that?" Gwen stood up and walked towards the pair of them "Who else would marry me knowing I was carrying a monster inside me? I love him and I'm going to marry him. Today."  
"Oh stop being so selfish Gwen." Lucy snapped, "You still don't get it do you? There is an alien in this building planning on ripping you apart and she will kill all your friends and family if they stand in the way. Right now they are safe because the baby is not ready to be born yet but we don't know how long that safety is going to last. We are trying to keep you alive so that you can marry Rhys some other time don't you get that? Stop thinking about what you want? What about Rhys? I'm sure he'd prefer to postpone the wedding if it means you get to live!"

"She's got a point" Rhys said quietly as he walked over to his fiancée "I mean I wouldn't have put it like that but it's my wedding too. Don't I get a say in this?"

The conversation was interrupted by a scream from down the corridor, as they ran towards it one of the bridesmaids ran away.

"Ianto, after the girl. I want this contained." Jack ordered,

"Jam the phone lines" Lucy added, "This needs to stay in the area." Ianto nodded and ran out of the room

"Jack! Lucy!" Owen said, and pointed at the dead body on the floor.

"I've seen the alien, she's a woman in black." Tosh said as Owen helped her out of the black goo she was stuck with. With Owen's help it didn't take long for Tosh and the Best Man to get free.

"For now anyway." Lucy added,

"I want Gwen safe Jack." Rhys shouted

"We all want that. Owen you need to operate on Gwen now! Lucy you go with Tosh to try and find the Nostravite. Ianto?" He asked into the earpiece

"Not contained." Ianto replied, "I'm jamming the phone lines now but everyone knows about the body."

"Ok..."

"Ianto, Tosh and I are on our way down. Keep your eyes out for a tallish woman in black, if you find her don't let her out of your sight but try not to let her know you're watching her" Lucy said, "Gwen, Owen's got a plan, try and trust him. Jack, deal with the body?" She knew she couldn't give her boss orders but he gave a small nod. "Rhys we're doing our best to keep everyone as safe as we possibly can, please don't question us while we do our job. Gwen, catch."

Gwen caught the gun that was thrown toward her instinctively, "thanks." She said

"No problem. Come on Tosh, let's go."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"MOVE!" Lucy shouted as they ran back into the room where the ceremony was being held. "I need everyone to stay out of our way."  
"You never said who you are." One of the guests said braver than they felt

"Torchwood." Lucy replied shortly as she scanned the room

"Gwen's Torchwood. You're real?" The father of the bride asked, amazed.

"Does Gwen not understand the secret part of the official secrets act?" Lucy said as she turned to look back at Tosh. They both noticed the woman at the same time.

"THERE!" The guns were out in seconds which gave the nostravite time to morph into something half human and half alien and jump at the window, the room screamed as Lucy and Tosh shot at her.

"DAMNIT EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Lucy shouted at the room in general and as she still had Cecil in her hand ready to shoot they listened. "Thanks" She said with a sigh. "Tosh go after her."

Tosh nodded and jumped out of the window as well.

"As for you guys, screaming just makes our job harder so please try to only do so if that thing is about to kill you. Thank you for your cooperation." And with that she followed Tosh out of the window and into the gardens.

She followed Tosh through the gardens until they reached an open area and no sign of her.

"Fuck that thing is fast."

"It won't have gone far without the baby though" Tosh reminded her

"Yeah" Lucy sighed before smiling at Tosh, "not quite the perfect wedding that Gwen wanted really is it?"

"No." Tosh agreed, "I'm not sure she thought of this when she was planning it as she was growing up."

They started to walk back to the hotel.

"Is it bad that I find the timing of all of this slightly amusing?" Lucy asked

"Almost certainly." Tosh replied with a smile.  
"Hmm... I thought it probably was. Oh well. Jack?" She said into her comms.

"Yeah?"

"Mummy's gone missing, we're coming back into the hotel now. What's happening?"

"Ianto's tidied up the mess in the other room and we're keeping an eye out for any double."

"Gwen is in with Rhys and his mum." Owen added "I'll perform the operation in a bit, she doesn't seem that happy about my idea though."  
"What _is_ your idea?" Tosh asked interested as she scanned the area

"Singularity Scalpel." Ianto said joining the conversation as well, "By the way the bridesmaid fainted in shock so I've moved her and her friend into a small room. So if you see them that's the alien."

"Hang on." Tosh said, "Owen did you say that Gwen is with Rhys' mum?"

"Yeah..."

"I can see Rhys' mum she's talking to Gwen's parents."

"Get to her quickly as possible." Jack ordered.

It didn't take long and soon they were all outside the bride's suit and Jack kicked the door down and they all entered, gun's raised.

"GET BACK YOU UGLY BITCH" Jack shouted as he pointed his gun at the form of Rhys' mum

"What the hell do you think you are doing? That's my mother!" Rhys shouted back

"No, it's the alien." Jack replied not taking his eyes off it.

"I'm not an alien." It said

"Oh you're good." Jack couldn't help but compliment it.  
"And it's surprising how many aliens say that when we've got guns pointed at them." Lucy added

"But I'm not."

"Jack?" Gwen asked suddenly, "can it copy smells too?"

"No just physical" Owen said.

"Right well I'd recognise that bloody awful perfume anywhere. It's Brenda Jack, that's Brenda."

"Well that's awkward" Lucy said slightly jokingly as they all lowered their guns, Rhys punched Jack across the face and Lucy was impressed, "nice punch."

"Thanks. That's for calling my mother an ugly bitch."

"So if this is Rhys' mum then whose outside...?" Tosh asked.

All members of Torchwood including Gwen ran out the room holding their guns ready to shoot.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The nostravite grabbed Mrs Cooper by the neck, Gwen stood in the centre of the team and although neither Jack nor Lucy were happy about it they let her take the lead. It was her mother in danger and she was the one the alien wanted.

"Mam! Let her go ok?"

"The bond between mother and daughter is a precious thing"

"Just let her go." Gwen tried again

"Your mother for my child!" The alien hissed

"No deal" Jack said sternly

"You don't have a say." It spat at him

"Don't listen to it Gwen." Her mother said and Lucy was impressed by her bravery.

"Don't worry Mam, I'll make sure you're safe." Gwen replied "It won't kill you, you'll be ok."

"Gwen you can't do this" Rhys whispered at her.

"It's my mum Rhys." Gwen replied

"We've got her covered Rhys." Lucy added, "Trust her, Gwen's good at her job."

"Did you just give Gwen a compliment?" Owen said with a smirk as Rhys moved away from Gwen behind the team so he would be protected.

"You know I might have done." She replied, "oh the shame... oh well I'm sure I'll make up for it another time."

"Yeah when the timing's a bit better." Ianto pointed out.

Owen and Lucy both pulled a face but nodded in agreement, Gwen started to slowly walk forward. It looked like a bad parody of her wedding that didn't happen, as she took slow steps in a wedding dress holding a bouquet of flowers.

As she walked she kept say reassuring words to her mother.

"It's ok Mam... it's going to be ok..."

The second the nostravite moved Gwen's mother out of the way and shouted.

"Come to Mumma"

Gwen shot. She had been using her bouquet of flowers to hide the gun in her hands. The bride-to-be continued to shoot until the nostravite fled.

Ianto and Tosh hung back to check up on Gwen and the other guests whilst Owen, Jack and Lucy ran after the alien.

"Kind of daughter ever mother must dream of." Owen joked, "Cold as ice, packing an automatic."

"Come off it Owen." Lucy replied, "We all know that if you were alive and this wasn't her wedding day you would have jumped on her."

"Well..." He smirked, "that was really rather sexy."

"I agree wedding dress and a gun is a good look." Jack said, "Anyway, there's no sign of her."

They moved back to join the rest of the group and Mr Cooper spoke, "Gwen told me about you, but I didn't believe her."

Gwen made a couple of movements to try and get her dad to shut up and Lucy just gave her a look. "Does the word secret in 'official secrets act' mean nothing to you Gwen?"

"Well you've been complaining about it and talking about a Torchwood rewrite..." She tried, "Besides it's my dad" She added.

"Yeah I know I've been complaining, I'm planning on bringing up an amended one for family in my next meeting with Will. However, that doesn't change the fact that part of your job is to keep this secret and right now that amendment hasn't happened so you _still_ can't tell anyone."

"We can discuss this back at the hub." Jack interrupted

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble poppet." Gwen's dad said,

"It's fine." Lucy sighed, "I'm of the opinion that family should know anyway, she just shouldn't have said anything"

"How could I not?" Gwen replied getting angry, "I couldn't tell them that I've lost a child"

"As much as I enjoy watching your legendary arguments," Jack said, interrupting them again, "this really isn't the right time. We need that thing out of Gwen as quickly as possible. Owen?"

"Yeah. Gwen? Rhys?" They both nodded and followed Owen back into the building.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"_Lucy?"_ Jack said in her ear piece

"Yup?" She replied as she continued to herd the guests into a room and locked them in "I lost it by the way, sorry. But all the guest are locked in the main room."

"_Never mind. Anyway it appears that the guns don't work – Owen emptied a clip into it as well and it's still running around."_

"So you need a better weapon." Lucy completed his train of thought.

"_Yes, and seeing as your our expert..."_

"Don't worry Captain." Lucy was grinning and it could be heard in her voice, "I know just the thing, and I happen to store it in the SUV."

"_Sorry to interrupt"_ Ianto said on the comms, "_But where in the SUV?"_

"The one I'm thinking of is under the carpet in the boot. Although the one in the back right-hand door would probably work as well."

"And when were you going to tell me that you'd made these changes to my car?"

"Your_ car?"_ Jack asked

"I'm the one who cleans it when you lot go on a joy ride and store everything in the boot." Ianto replied, "If you want to have a claim on it you can clean it."

"_Lucy, when did you make these changes to _Ianto's_ car?"_ Jack asked quickly.

"A while ago." She shrugged as she got into the SUV and quickly used her knives to pull the carpet up. "I also have to admit that I have just used my knives to get under the carpet."

Ianto sighed and Lucy smirked.

"I know, I know, but can you get annoyed at me later about it? And also not over the comms? It's not the best place for a domestic"

_"Fine."_ Ianto sighed, _"But we will talk about this Lucy."_

"_Can I watch?"_ Jack asked _"Ow, dammit Tosh don't hit me!"_

"Thanks Tosh." Lucy said

"_No problem, any idea where that thing has gone?"_

"I'm going to follow the shouting." Lucy said "Hang on... ok one super awesome gun and one Torchwood weapons specialist reporting for duty Captain."

"_I didn't hear the salute." _Jack mocked

"What a pity?!" She heard screams and started to run, "WHY ARE THERE ALWAYS PEOPLE WHO DON'T LISTEN TO US WHEN WE TELL THEM TO HIDE!"

"I'm guessing you've found them..."

"Bit busy now Jack. It's at one of the outhouses, still looking like Rhys' mum. See you in a few minutes."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Fuck!" Rhys said as the chainsaw died.

"Rhys you're a bad boy." The nostravite mocked as Lucy aimed and powered up the gun, "and you know what bad boys get?"

She pulled on the trigger and a pulse of energy left the gun and hit the nostravite in the back exploding black goo everywhere – including over Rhys.

"You know if this was a TV show I would have a really catchy line about what bad boys get." Lucy said with a sigh, she smiled at the pair of them. "Well haven't you two got a wedding to go to? I know the bride is supposed to be a bit late, but it's not normally because she was in the hay with the groom beforehand."

Gwen and Rhys laughed and Lucy smiled at the happy couple.

"I'll go let the others know that as the bride's not dead the wedding's back on then shall I?"

"What do you think?" Rhys asked Gwen as he pulled her up, she smiled at him and then looked at Lucy.

"We'll be along in a bit."

"Bad luck you know." Lucy mocked and then dodged out of the way of the hay that was thrown at her, "or you know good luck in this case cause you saved her life." She gave the pair a proper smile. "By the way I don't think I ever properly said anything, congratulations you two. You both deserve happiness."

"Thanks." Rhys replied and Lucy left them to it.

Five minutes later Gwen was once again walking down the aisle.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy had been 'casually' looking round the reception room where people were slowly starting to fall asleep, some of the older guests had already migrated to their rooms when the effects of the retconned drugged champagne got too much, which Lucy was glad to see because it meant a few more people they didn't have to deal with. Ianto had spent the night at the DJ booth due to the original DJ having freaked out and tried to run off, Ianto surprised all of Torchwood apart from Lucy at how good he was and his song choices. She watched the happy couple dance with their friends and couldn't find herself to be anything but happy for Gwen. She may not normally like her and at times – most of the time – thought that Rhys deserved better but that didn't matter. They were happy and in love and although the wedding hadn't gone the way they wanted it to it had still been the perfect day.

"Dance with me." Ianto said suddenly appearing at her side. She laughed at him before realising he was serious.

"Ianto, I don't know if you've noticed but I don't dance and it may be the end of the night for everyone else here, but we have work to do."  
"I know. But Owen agreed to take over the decks for one song for me. Dance with me Cariad."

The introduction to one of her favourite songs started playing and Lucy looked at him confused and surprised – this version of the song wasn't out yet. It didn't exist in this universe and yet Owen was playing it. The rest of the hall, who were still awake, didn't seem to mind the change to pace that indicated it was nearing the end of the night.

"But... I mean this doesn't..."

"I stole your ipod." Ianto explained. "Do you know how much you've listened to this song? Or how much I've seen you dancing to it in the flat when you don't think I'm looking. Dance with me Lucy." He offered his hand again and Lucy rolled her eyes but took it.

"I'm hardly in the right clothes."  
"Lucy I've only ever seen you in a dress once, so don't think about it. Just dance with me."

"I'm going to stand on your feet."  
"Good thing my mam made Rhi take dancing lessons and let her practice on me then. Any more excuses?"

"No." She sighed and leant against Ianto as the words to 'All of Me' started. "You're soppy and romantic, you know that." She murmured allowing herself to just follow Ianto and listen to the music.

"And you're pragmatic and don't have a romantic bone in your body, and yet I know full well this song makes you think of us." He span her round and she laughed as she lost her balance and fumbled back into hold.

"And you don't?"

"No, but it took you a while to understand that I really do love all of you. Even the bits that broke a long time ago 'all your perfect imperfections'."  
"You're an idiot." She giggled resting her head on his shoulder. "My stupid over romantic idiot, but still an idiot."

"Stop talking and just dance Lu."

Lucy rolled her eyes again but did as he said, once more getting lost in the music and the moment.

She may have done some stupid things in their relationship, walked out a couple of times and been stubborn in her beliefs that he deserved someone else but at that moment she knew that she couldn't lose him again. Suddenly the fear in the back of her mind about walking into Thames House and dying in his place disappeared – the pragmatic part of her knew it would come back but she deftly ignored the small voice – Ianto had known the one song to make her stand up in front of everyone else and dance. He had stolen her ipod for this one moment. It wasn't that the world no longer existed, she knew it was out there and that the rest of their team was watching but it didn't matter, in that moment she had perfect clarity. And walking to her death wasn't as full as fear as before because Ianto deserved it. Allowing Owen to die had hurt more than she thought and she didn't know if she was going to be able to go through with letting Tosh die too, but she knew that wouldn't survive Ianto's death.

**A/N: Another episode bites the dust, and I have to admit this is one of my favourite episodes both to write and just to watch so I hoped you enjoyed it. Next week is Lucy's birthday and there's a bit of a gap before another episode.**

**Please review it makes me happy!**

**Rea**


	62. Chapter 62 - Lucy's Birthday

Lucy and Ianto walked around the bay, arm in arm looking like any normal couple on a late lunch from work. Lucy had put a badge that said it was her birthday on her leather jacket and was enjoying spending this time with Ianto, outside from the normal madness of Torchwood. Jack had let them go out for a long lunch and had offered Lucy the day off but she declined saying she'd prefer an extra day on the weekend for the pair of them. Their boss had laughed and agreed providing he didn't have to give her any other present and that there wasn't a major invasion.

"What's the plan for the weekend?" Lucy asked, for the umpteenth time. Ianto had refused to tell her what he had planned for her birthday.

"Still not telling you." Ianto said with a dry smile, the same way he had replied every time she had asked.

"But today is my birthday." She jokingly moaned.

"And you're not getting your main present till the weekend." He replied, making his accent stronger, knowing that she loved it and it would annoy her.

"Damn you and your sexy accent. You do it on purpose to stop me asking questions, and the worst thing is it works almost every single time." Ianto laughed, so Lucy gently shoved him before running ahead. Ianto ran and when he caught her pulled her in for a kiss. "You do know that they'll be watching." She said quietly, gesturing at the CCTV camera on the corner near them.

"Let them." He replied kissing her again. "They are all just jealous that I've got a gorgeous girlfriend."  
"I don't think Gwen is."  
"You are _definitely_ sexier than Rhys"

Lucy laughed, "We need to get back to work."  
"And now the moment is ruined. You had to remind me about work."

"We both have work to do." She shrugged as they started to walk hand in hand down to the hub.  
"Well you're the boss." Ianto joked, it had been a surprise for all of them when Jack had promoted Lucy, but they had got used to it now, as well as Owen's comments about Ianto sleeping with the boss.

"Technically that's Jack." Lucy smiled, she had decided that although she was going to take this promotion seriously and establish more Torchwood's around the country once London was set up, but she was going to stay in the field and based in Cardiff.  
"I have no plans on taking Jack away this weekend. Or taking the work phone either."

"I have done the unthinkable, I have corrupted Ianto Jones, Torchwood's famous archivist. You don't want to talk about Torchwood and you want time off." She mocked.

"Turns out that time outside of Torchwood isn't so bad when I have someone to spend that time with."

"Ahh puke." Lucy laughed. "Come on, I'll take your shift in the tourist office. I know you've got other stuff you need to do."

"Why?" Ianto was suspicious as they walked back to Torchwood. "You find working in the office boring and would much rather be down in the range playing with your guns."  
"Well yeah..." She agreed, "But I could do with boring, I've got a book to read and music to listen to. Feel like spending my 25th birthday doing that and not what I do every day, no matter how much I love it."

Ianto didn't completely buy her response, he could see a knowing glint in her eye that meant she was up to something. However until he knew what that was he had no response.  
"Ok, thanks. I've got things I want to get done before our weekend. If you're sure."

"I'm sure." She unlocked the door to the tourist office and gave him a quick kiss. "Now, go back to work. I'll see you in a few hours when I shut up shop."

"You know, I know that you're up to something."

"Am I?"  
"Yes, Miss Smith, you are."

She smirked at him, "Oh well Mr Jones, you've got no proof that I'm going to do anything."  
"Sometimes it does worry me that you're the second in charge of Torchwood"

"And with what I've got planned it worries me too."

"So you _are_ planning something."

"Go to work Yan, you'll find out later. But I will tell you that I did buy myself a birthday present."

A couple of hours later a delivery man walked into the office. "Delivery for Lucy Smith."  
Lucy looked up from her book and grinned. "That would be me. Is that what I think it is?"

"I imagine so, not many people would order something like this, birthday?"  
"Yup. Present for myself. Can you drive it down to the car park? It's not quite going to fit here, only you'll need my pass to get you in."  
"Not a problem. If you jump in the front of the van with me and direct me down."

"Brilliant." Lucy quickly signed for it, "Thanks a lot. It's just around the corner"

They walked out and a large van was waiting slightly further down the bay. Lucy knew that inside that was her present, her very big very awesome present.

"Seems a bit hi-tech." The driver said as they walked towards the van, "A security pass for the tourist office's car park."

"It's standard for all government work." Lucy replied, "People just forget that we're run by the council and that technically means we are allowed the same security. We've had a couple of people breaking into the cars in the past. Plus other proper government people use the car park as well, it's more like we piggyback theirs." She wasn't completely lying but at the same time wasn't being completely truthful. They climbed into the van with the 'chocky-wocky-doo-dah' sign on the side and Lucy quickly directed him to the Torchwood car park.

Her phone rang as the driver started unloading her present from the back of the van. "Lucy Smith." She answered focusing on the phone call but still watching as her birthday present to herself was removed.

"It's me." Ianto said down the phone. "I just came up to the office to ask you to sign some paperwork - Jack is on a call - and you're not there."  
"Yeah, my delivery came." Lucy said with a shrug, "I directed the driver down to our car park."  
"What did you buy?" Ianto asked, and Lucy waved away the driver as he climbed back into the van and drove off.

"A present." She replied being purposefully vague.

"That had to go down to the car park?"

"It didn't fit through the door." Lucy said quietly with a small wince, she had known Ianto was not going to be impressed and Ianto sighed.

"I'm coming down to see what the hell you've bought yourself that is so big it doesn't fit through the door. Is this why you wanted to be in the tourist office this afternoon?"  
"Would you be annoyed if I said yes?"

He sighed again and Lucy knew he was pinching his nose, "No. It's your birthday and you are my boss."  
"But you're my boyfriend not just a colleague"  
"I wish you'd told me the truth."

"Sorry." Lucy winced immediately feeling guilty.

"I know you are." He said and she could hear the smile and knew that she had been forgiven. "So, what have you bought yourself?" He asked, changing the subject

"Probably better for you to see it, than for me to explain it." Lucy said with a grin as she eyed it, it was expertly made and looked beautiful.

"Why does that not fill me with confidence?"

"Probably because you know me."

"Probably." He agreed, "I'm almost down there. See you in a sec."

Less than two minutes later Ianto walked in and blinked in surprise at what he was seeing. Lucy had bought a chocolate elephant. A life sized chocolate elephant. And even more than that she was busy sitting on it, eating what appeared to be one of the tusks.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Jack, hoping he had finished on his call. He obviously had because the captain picked up straight away.

"Ianto, let me hear some of those sexy Welsh vowels."  
"Sir we have a problem." Ianto said not taking his eyes off his girlfriend who waved down at him

"What's that?"  
"Lucy is currently sitting on a life size chocolate elephant in the car park."

There was a pause as Jack took in the information, "I'll be straight down. Try and get her to climb down."

He hung up and Ianto called over to Lucy, "Lu, please get down from there"  
"But it's my birthday."  
"I know that. But your jeans are going to get covered in chocolate, and what if it breaks underneath your weight?"

"I'll be fine." Lucy shrugged his worries off, "Isn't he a beauty?"  
"He's lovely, but also completely made of chocolate which makes you completely hyper and there is no way we are going to be able to eat it all."

"I'm going to give it a damn good try."

"That worries me more than it should, mainly because I know you will." He rolled his eyes. "What made you think this was a good idea?"  
She shrugged, "I was thinking about things I would never normally get, and about Becky. Her favourite animal was an elephant and so I decided to try and link the two. And then I decided if I was going to get a chocolate elephant I would do it properly."

"So you found somewhere to buy a full size chocolate elephant."

"Well yeah..."

Jack walked into the car park. "You weren't lying."  
"Fucking hell" Owen said as the rest of the team walked into the car park. "That's a lot of chocolate."  
"Yup" Lucy nodded in agreement with a big grin. "Lots of chocolate and all mine."

"This is almost worth watching just for scientific purposes" He continued, "Watching Lucy get more and more hyper on the chocolate and then put her in the shooting range. There's got to be a correlation between the amount of chocolate and the number of targets."  
"I wonder if they would improve or get worse?" Tosh added

"I would guess worse." Gwen joined in the conversation, "Hitting the targets is harder when you are jumping off the walls on a sugar rush."  
Lucy grinned at them and smirked down at Ianto, "See, full size chocolate elephant. Brilliant idea."

"Jack!" Ianto looked at their boss desperate for him to intervene.

"Ok" Jack said seriously "Lucy, climb down from the chocolate elephant. You can't eat it all in one go, and they can't use you as scientific study about how hyperactivity impacts on target shooting."

"But it's still my elephant though."  
"It's still your elephant" Ianto reassured her rolling his eyes. "Sometimes I worry about you Lucy."  
"But you love me though?" She replied fluttering her eyes while finishing off the tusk.

"You know I do, now please get down. Tosh you laughing is not helping."  
"I'm sorry." The Japanese woman replied trying to swallow her laughs, "but you have to admit it's funny. Only Lucy would buy herself a life size chocolate elephant."

"Lucy please get down." Ianto tried again and Lucy rolled her eyes at him before throwing herself off the elephant and landing in a crouch.

"Superhero landing! Hard on the knees though."  
"You're mad." Jack said with a grin as Tosh started laughing again.  
"Never denied it. Anyone want some chocolate?" It seemed that was the last resort for Gwen who joined Tosh in laughing at Lucy and the whole situation. "Listen I know its a mad and stupid idea but I figured why not. I mean we fight aliens for a living so sometimes mad and stupid is good."

"Only you." Jack said shaking in his with a small smile. "Only you would be that much trouble to get down and then just offer us chocolate."  
"I'm not going to eat it all myself." Lucy shrugged. "I might be mad but I'm not stupid. But I figure this will keep us going for a decent length of time, I'll take some down to Flat Holm as well, probably give a leg to Katerina. May as well share the wealth ."  
Ianto rolled his eyes at her.

"What happened to it being _your_ elephant?"  
"He is my elephant, but that doesn't mean I can't share."

"Ok, back to work." Jack said gesturing at all of them. "Tosh you've still got the costing on research to write up before you go on holiday for a week."  
"And I still want that information on how much UNIT have of your translation system." Lucy added pulling the other tusk off which Ianto deftly pulled out of her hands before she could start eating it.

"I reckon one tusk is enough for now. Don't you think? You'll spoil your dinner if you eat too much"  
"You sound like my mum." Lucy said with a small smile but didn't complain. "Gwen how are you doing with the catch up work from your honeymoon?" Gwen pulled a face and shrugged instead of answering.

"Looks like we've all got enough to be getting on with." Jack said gesturing at the stairs again. "Lucy hows the right up of a new OSA going?"  
"Slowly." Lucy replied as she followed Jack towards the stairs and away from the chocolate elephant with only a single backwards glance. "Ianto's managed to find me ones from other countries though. So that helps, it's just more about covering all the basis and making sure I don't leave a gaping hole in it. Ideally I'll have a draft ready for you this evening before we go away for the weekend."

"Any idea where Ianto is taking you yet?"  
"No, he refuses to tell me anything." Lucy replied turning and giving a mock glare to Ianto who just raised an eyebrow in response. "Looking forward to having the weekend off though."

The rest of the day went past without particular note, and Lucy was surprised to see the team waiting for her as she came up from the shooting range to leave for the weekend.  
"What's going on?" She asked automatically suspicious.

"Why would something be going on?"  
"Because you've normally all gone home by now?"  
"Yeah well they decided we couldn't leave until you came back up." Owen grumbled. "You spent ages down there I was beginning to think you'd never leave this damn place. Some of us have got lives to lead."  
"You're dead."  
"Yeah, well some of us have got deaths to lead then. The fact doesn't change that you were down there for ages and don't seem to ever leave this place. Honestly if I didn't know you were happy with Ianto I'd think you lived here."

"I had some paperwork to finish and then got caught trying to sort of stuff for London as well as shooting practice. Plus Nick wanted help with a few things, like the staff flats and the security. We've managed to buy the place while they're still building so we can add our own bits to it..."  
"I rest my case."  
"What case?"  
"You don't have a life outside of Ianto and this place."  
"You do remember how I got my job don't you? It's fairly difficult to have friends outside of work when literally the only thing you know in the entire universe is Torchwood. None of you have told me why you were waiting anyway, what did I do?"  
"You didn't do anything." Tosh said quickly before Owen could start grumbling and complaining again. "We just wanted to give you a birthday present before you left."  
"You got me a present? I thought the weekend off was my present?" Lucy looked over at Jack who just shrugged as Tosh pulled something out from her desk.

"We were going to get you some chocolate as well but seeing as you sort that out for yourself we decided against it and just got a small cupcake instead." She passed over the cupcake and two wrapped parcels which Lucy took giving the team a weird look, she had given them presents on their birthday even if it was just covering Gwen for a night so she could go out with Rhys but had never thought they they would give her anything. Her birthday the year before had just come and gone without being mentioned, but thinking back she wasn't even sure if they had known it was her birthday as she hadn't brought it up. They had also been dealing with the backlash of bringing Suzie back to life and it hadn't seemed like the right time to say anything.  
The cupcake was put on the side so she could open the present which felt like a book, she couldn't work out what the other one was though.

"Open it then." Jack said impatiently as she felt it trying to work out what it was.  
"Any one would think its your birthday. I can open it as slowly as I want." She was tempted to open it even slower just to annoy Jack but that simply wasn't in her nature and she quickly pulled and ripped the wrapping paper off to discover not a book but a framed photo of the team, Rhys, Myfwany and Martha all grinning and laughing. It was obviously a print screen taken from the CCTV but they all looked happy, even though it was only a day or so after Owen's resurrection before Martha went back home to London and Tom. They had all signed the photo and put silly comments or a simple 'Happy Birthday' making it even more personal; Owen had even gone as far as drawing a speech bubble in for Myfwany which simply said 'screech'. Lucy couldn't help but grin as she looked down at her team.  
"Thank you." She said looking back up at them as they waited to see what her reaction would be. "It means a lot."  
"Open the other one then tea-girl."  
"I'm you're boss remember Owen." She teased back before putting the picture down and picked up the other parcel and pulled it open to find two leg sheaths, she gave them a quizzical look and Ianto passed over another present.

"This ones from just me but they go together. Open it carefully though." Lucy did so and gazed in shock at the sight of the two beautiful throwing knives. She removed the protective packaging to get a closer look and feel of them, they were a similar style to the ones that Sam had taught her with although the weight and size were slightly different and would take a while to get used to. She would almost certainly cut her wrists again when she practised and got used to the small differences. Each knife was 6 inches long and a metallic blue colour that changed hues in the changing light.

"They're beautiful." Lucy breathed as she got a feel for them, testing their balance in her hand. "Thank you."

"Ianto took me with him to go looking." Tosh explained, "I figured you might want somewhere to safely keep them and with Cecil on your hip leg sheaths seemed the next obvious place. You can still keep them hidden and they won't get in the way."  
"Thank you." She repeated as she put each knife into a sheath and hugged each of the team, even Gwen, trying to convey how much it meant to her. Owen had jokingly tried to push her away saying that was too much but he held on just as tight.

The moment was spoiled when Jack's wriststrap alerted them to weevil action and they all jumped to attention.

"There's only two." Tosh said after she checked her computer, "By the skate park by the look of it."  
"Where there is only drunks and druggies this time of night." Lucy added, she went to join Jack and Owen in dealing with it but Jack wouldn't let her.

"You're on holiday and we don't need the help."  
"Yeah but..."  
"But nothing, king of the weevils remember?" Jack pointed at Owen who groaned.  
"I wish I'd never said that."  
"But you did and we'll never let you forget it your majesty." Lucy shot back before shrugging. "Well if you really are sure we'll see you on Monday." She grabbed her presents and cake, Ianto passed her her leather jacket and they left the hub.

**A/N: So this week is just a bit of fun and Lucy getting her own knives. **

**Next week she meets up with Kate Stewart to discuss Torchwood/UNIT relations as well as trade stories. Then the fun and games stop and the end of series 2... Which is soul destroying but lots of fun to write.**

**Rea**


	63. Chapter 63 - Meeting Kate Stewart

"So what can I do for Torchwood then?" Kate Stewart (Lethrbidge-Stewart) asked as she leaned over her desk and looked at Lucy who had been escorted to the Scientific Adivsor's office and was still standing in the doorway with a UNIT solider beside her, waiting to be dismissed

"Nothing in particular" Lucy replied as she walked in and took the seat that Kate had gestured to

"That'll be all Private" Kate waved the man away and he shut the door on his way out, leaving the two women alone. "So why did you ask for this meeting then?"

"Because I wanted to meet you and I figured it was time that Torchwood and UNIT properly acknowledged each other and how the routines have changed. We're not the old Torchwood with Yvonne Heartman in charge and you're moving UNIT forward into a new age. Science Leads after all. Plus it would make my life a whole lot easier if we established some ground rules"

"You _just_ wanted to meet me?" Kate sounded suspicious. "And 'ground rules'?, is Torchwood treating UNIT like a wayward child now?"

"I wasn't planning on it, these were going to be rules for both of us and a way to keep certain members of our respective teams for taking it a step too far."

"Your Captain Harkness is well known for taking things too far."

"Exactly" Lucy shrugged. "I mean it's a bit of an excuse but it could be beneficial to the pair of us. Like I said I mainly just wanted to meet you. Your father is a personal hero of mine and you're pulling UNIT in the right direction again after years of shoot first and ask questions later."

"You know who my father is?"

"Just because you don't use the Lethbridge anymore doesn't mean it's not your name. And give me some credit. I'm Torchwood, it wasn't too difficult to find out, all a matter of public record."

"They were classified by UNIT."

Lucy shrugged with a wry smile, they both knew that Torchwood had access to the UNIT files in the same way that they knew that UNIT had access to some Torchwood files. Not as many as they would have liked but some, enough. There was a constant 'war' between the their technicians to get into the others system without the opponent knowing and leaving an open door into their own.

"You know who I am and who my father is and yet my people could find hardly anything about you."

"Funny that" Lucy mused with a small shrug as though it wasn't important.

"It's almost as though you appeared from nowhere. The Torchwood forgeries were good and they took a few weeks to spot. The only reason we did is because your life was too average before signing up."

"I'll pass on the compliment to Tosh, although if your people noticed maybe they weren't good enough."

"Did you know that we ran facial recognition on you?"

"How could I possibly know that although if you just let me in here with a wave of my ID I would have been concerned."

"Nothing came up from before you started at Torchwood, no footage of you in shops, nothing."

"Well that _is_ weird."

"Are you going to tell me how that happened, because you obviously know how."

"Not really although it has something to do with your dad's old friend. He might even tell you if you ask him nicely and I say it's ok."

"You've met the Doctor?"

"It's complicated, but no I've not met him face to face, I've spoke to him on the phone though." Lucy was enjoying being an enigma and not answering Kate's questions. "Are you done trying to suss me out or make me spill my secrets. I'm not going to tell you anything and I'd much prefer if we traded stories rather than information."

"What kind of stories?"

"Stories of the Doctor of course. Or we could just discuss the ground rules I mention earlier but that's not as fun."

"Stories later" Kate said, still not sure what she thought of the Torchwood agent, merely the fact that she was Torchwood meant there was more to her than met the eye. The mention of the Time Lord helped to sway her a bit, and she couldn't help but be slightly proud of the acknowledgement as her father as a hero.

"Ok." Lucy shrugged. "I want to officially declare Cardiff and the surrounding area a 'no go' zone for UNIT"

"That's a bit much"

"We already know that's the case unofficially. When was the last time you bothered investigating something in Cardiff, or even South Wales? We could fall into the coast and London wouldn't notice. And I mean actually investigating and not just speaking to us on the phone or sending newbies or people who piss you off."

"And how much off the surrounding area do you want to claim?"

"About a radius of an hour's drive from Central Station. As much as it's amusing to watch your men try to persuade Jack that they should have access to something it does get in the way of real work sometimes. And before you say anything I'm aware that Jack's attitude to UNIT is another matter and I'm willing to be the official go between, which means you don't have to deal with your men making sexual harassment claims when he asks for a red cap he can use in bed. And I don't have to deal with the phone calls about said claims nor do I need to tell Jack that claims have been made."

"It would make things an awful lot easier if you were the middle man."

"I'm not saying that we can't share information and we'll have to have a proper meeting and some point soon anyway as Torchwood is starting to evolve. But could we at least start with the agreement to trade information and access to archives when needed and that the unofficial becomes official?"

"Yes I've heard the rumours." Kate said, not quite answering the question. "You want to build Torchwood London again."

"And I've asked your cousin to run it for me

"My cousin?" That had obviously surprised Kate and Lucy counted that as a win.  
"Yeah. Nick Lethbridge-Stewert. He didn't last under the old UNIT due to 'questioning orders' and since leaving has set up a successful investigation firm more than slightly helped out the police as well as pissing them off and getting in their way. It's a bit of a risk but I figured your father would have told him stories and Jack was thinking about recruiting him into Cardiff anyway. I told you, I've done my research." She added the last bit at Kate's shocked face and didn't think to add that she had called the Doctor to check that he would be suitable for the job. "He hasn't confirmed yet but agreed to finish the organisation and run the memorial for Canary Wharf as a trail. He did a great job of it, don't you think?"  
Numbly Kate just nodded before regaining her voice.

"It was nicely done. I was invited on behalf of UNIT as well as the men who did the tidy up and rescue mission."  
"I know. I invited you."  
"Nick really organised all of that?"  
"He stepped up with two weeks to spare as I was going mad. I had most of it mostly done but he needed to finish it and deal with any problems – like the day release of a couple of the survivors. But we're getting off the point, Torchwood London can be discussed when it's more than just words written on paper, I've not even confirmed a location yet."

"You do realise my bosses aren't going to be happy with that. We've been based in London for years and since Canary Wharf fell we've had plenty to deal with."  
"I know, you had autons recently and you stopped the problem with the 'safe' new form of energy in the Artic."  
"How do you know that?"  
"Same way you know about the alien invasions in Cardiff. I'm good at my job. I'm not saying that there aren't going to be problems and times where we argue over who has what but surely it makes sense for us to work side by side rather than at each others throats. When London starts getting bigger, because do not think that it is not going to happen and grow, I'll have people specifically assigned to be the go between for UNIT and previous companions trying to keep everyone in on the loop so we know that if it is something we have to deal with or not. The Doctor is great but he doesn't tidy up and he's not always here, plus he's falible; if he hadn't disagreed with Harriet Jones then Saxon would never have got to power."  
"That doesn't change the fact we've been able to deal with things perfectly well since Torchwood fell."  
"No matter how much your bosses might not like it Torchwood London is going to happen. Personally I'm aiming towards making sure it stays as a research post as well as having active field agents who can deal with the problems as they occur. I want a full team of medics and for it to be ruled by science and not guns and no matter how much you try you're an army funded group that works for the UN looking at a much bigger picture than the rest of us with plenty of politics involved and not always noticing the smaller people. I would much prefer to be working alongside you instead of against you but if that's the only option available then that's what'll happen." She moved to get up but Kate shook her head.

"No, wait. What kind of thing were you thinking about?"  
"You've got people all over the world" Lucy replied sitting back down. "I can't think of anyone who has a problem leaving things like that but Prince Williams a bit concerned that the idea of international politics getting involved in keeping the people of Great Britain safe. I hadn't even realised I'd agreed to reopen London until he confirmed it at the end of the meeting, and when you've just gone to the palace and been promoted you don't say no."

"No, I can't imagine you do."  
"For now, lets just say we stay internal and if things get bigger then we'll talk to you about it. But Cardiff is different. You know that we've been looking after the rift and things that come through it for decades."  
"Ok." Kate agreed slowly. "For now that will do although going through me doesn't make it official, you must know that."  
"Of course I do. Like I said, I mostly wanted to meet you, but I know that you've got the power to declare Cardiff a no go at least for scientists and the people under your control. The talk about London was just politeness. Plus I thought you might want to know that your cousin is running it so it doesn't come as a complete surprise at the next family get together."  
"Its been a long time since we all got together, I think it was Mum's funeral, Dad's been spending a lot of time out in Peru and visiting UNIT bases around the world, I think we just wants to get away from the memories." She mused and Lucy just shrugged and they sat in silence for a while.

It was Kate who broke the silence.

"What kind of stories of Dad did you want to hear?"

"Anything you can tell me." Lucy replied quickly. "Did he tell you about his adventures as bedtime stories or did Doris stop it saying it would give you nightmares?"  
"Dad tells the best stories" Kate said with a small smile. "But Mum used to restrict them at bedtime, not that I ever listened. Kept begging him to not leave it on a cliffhanger but he used to always finish it just when it was getting exciting by saying 'and the rest is for a sunnier day' and then when it would rain the next day I'd have to persuade him that it was sunny enough to complete it. Met the Doctor a couple of times growing up as well, not that I knew who he was but I knew he was Dad's best friend even if I thought he had lots of different best friends. You don't really question it when you're a kid."

"I used to wish the Doctor would visit when I was a kid, used to daydream about him turning up and taking me on a trip into space." Lucy had a wistful smile on her face.

"I asked him to take me once, I wanted my own adventure instead of one in a rocket made out of cardboard boxes in the spare room. He offered a quick trip to the moon and back but Mum stopped us. So we turned the spare room into the moon instead complete with glow in the dark stars perfectly placed that you'd be able to see on my birthday. They're still there, we never got round to taking them down even when it was redecorated."  
"Sounds pretty great."  
"He never turned up on time though, it used to drive Mum made cause Dad always insists on pouring an extra drink just in case he turned up that night. Of course at the end of the night Dad would drink the extra whiskey himself before he went to bed. Mum would joke that it was just a way of making sure he had another glass ready but she always kept an eye on the back gate, just in case."

**A/N: I wasn't sure where and how to end this chapter but this seemed like a good enough point. You've got plot happening on how Torchwood London will work. Plus discussion about the Doctor being part of the Brig's life :)**

**Next week is technically the first part of Fragments but it's all original stuff and a bit more fun.**

**Rea**


	64. Chapter 64 - Fragments, Part 1

**Welcome to what in my mind is Fragments Part 1, but if you want to keep it separate that works too. Enjoy**

Lucy was just finishing up working in the tourist office and was going to lock up when Rhys walked in.

"Heyya Rhys." Lucy smiled, "Come in, I'm just finishing for the day, almost a normal day in the office. No alien incursion and we all got on with paperwork and our own projects"

"Hi Lucy, is Gwen ready?" He replied although he sounded doubtful that his wife would be able to go out that evening. She had had to cancel dates with him to often for him to hold out any hope that they would be able to prearrange anything with any certainty of actually being able to attend.

"Err... I don't know, I've been up here for the past few hours or so. But like I said it's not been a busy day. Hang on," She walked up to the door and locked it, "you might as well come down with me and grab her yourself."

Rhys nodded and followed Lucy through the hole in the wall and into the hub. Where everyone apart from Owen, who had taken on more night duties by virtue of the fact that he was dead and no longer needed sleep, was finishing up for the day.

"Hi Rhys" Jack called, "here to pick your wife?"

"That's the plan." Rhys replied, "Any problem with that?"

"Not at all." The captain smiled.

Gwen walked up to her husband from her desk and kissed him gently.

"Give me a few minutes to get changed into something suitable. I mean I'm not covered in blood or anything like that, but still..." Rhys shrugged in understanding and watched as Gwen walked deeper into the hub.

"Good day Rhys?" Tosh asked

"Not particularly, had one of those stupid training days where they make you do stupid activities and team building things." He pulled a face in annoyance. "Being manager doesn't get you out of them, you just end up doing it with other managers you've only ever met a couple of times before."

"Oh god" Lucy agreed, "I did one of them once in the shop – they made us pass a balloon around in a circle using only our knees."

Jack walked up closer, interested in what the pair was talking about. He may have lived on Earth for a hundred years but as most of it was as a member or as a slave to Torchwood, there were still parts of normal life that he didn't know.

"What exactly is it?"

"It's when a stupid blonde bimbo, full of 'team building bullshit' makes you do stupid things to try and build up trust and such like." Lucy said scathingly.

Ianto came back down from where he had been feeding Myfanwy and caught the look in Jack's eyes, noticing what Jack was thinking before he said anything.

"Please no Jack." He said slightly pleadingly

Everyone suddenly caught onto what Jack was thinking, and were loudly disagreeing with him.

"You have to be kidding."

"No bloody way"

"Jack I'm not sure that's a good idea"

"I agree with Tosh this is a terrible idea."

Gwen walked back up, confused by what they were complaining about.

"What's going on?"

It was Jack who replied speaking over all the complaints, as the rest of the team loudly voiced their concerns.

"We're going to go on a team building thing, as though we have a normal job."

"But we don't have a normal job" Gwen pointed out

"I hate to agree with her," Lucy said "But what if something happens with the rift, or an alien decides to attack..."

"And that's why we should." Jack said in a tone of voice that they knew they couldn't argue with, "If something happens we'll cancel. Not a problem, but if they feel the need to do these things for the everyday office jobs, when we do a much more dangerous job and therefore need more trust in each other." He gave a pointed glance at Gwen and Lucy and smiled, "come on it will be a laugh."

They all grumbled but quickly dispersed when they realised that their boss was not going to back down.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It went badly from almost the minute they stepped out of the SUV and the woman greeted them. Barbara looked exactly like Lucy had described, blonde with short hair and bouncing and full of ideas to make them work closely as a team and to increase the trust between them. They all had to wear stickers with their name on, as they were passed out Owen and Lucy looked ready to murder Barbara but Jack swiftly put a stop to it by casually mentioning weevil duty.

"Soon we'll have you able to trust each other with your lives." Barbara announced happily; Lucy wanted to point out that that wasn't the problem and she did literally trust the team with her life, and they had shown the same trust in her in the past. It wasn't that she didn't trust Gwen it was more that she didn't like Gwen and therefore trust in anything that wasn't life or death didn't follow. It might be a bit harsh but it was also the truth.

"Right I'm going to pair you up and we'll do some simply trust exercises before we start talking about how you can increase efficiency in the work place and why these things are relevant. Tosh if you go with Jack, Owen and Ianto and that leaves you two."

"That's not a good idea." Lucy said, if she had to go through the embarrassment of the day paired with Gwen someone was going to get hurt, and she vowed that it wouldn't be her.

"I agree with Lucy, can't I go with Tosh?"

"It's fine. We'll all swap around during the day. And anyway this is a really good way of building relationships."

"We're both already in happy committed relationships and are happy for our relationship to remain non-existent and work only." Lucy snarked but Barbara ignored her and the rest of the team looked torn between wanting to laugh at their predicament and being worried about how badly this could go.

"You dropped me on purpose." Gwen growled as she picked herself up from the floor. Barbara had them running trust exercises that involved falling back and trusting that their partner wouldn't let them hit the floor. Lucy had taken a bigger step back than advised which meant that she missed when Gwen fell, although she managed to turn and catch herself at the last second. Owen had bowed out claiming that he bruised easily and therefore it wasn't safe.

"Sorry I was too late in catching you." Lucy smirked. "I'll _never_ be able to forgive myself. Anyway it's not like you weren't expecting it, you turned and caught yourself!"

"Gwen, give me some slack!" Lucy shouted. She was hanging from a rope at the top of the rock climbing wall. Barbara had insisted on leaving the two of them as a pair in an attempt to do her job and 'mend the obviously debilitating gap' between the pair of them. She seemed surprised that they were able to run an efficient work place with them pair of them constantly sniping at each other. Lucy noticed money exchanging hands on the ground between Owen and Jack, evidently they had bet about the outcome of this particular challenge.  
Gwen was currently holding the rope as tight as possible which meant that it wasn't possible for Lucy to start the climb down the wall and was simply hanging in mid-air.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes dammit I'm sure."  
"Ok." And with that Gwen let go of the rope causing Lucy to drop suddenly. She was glad that there was an overhang on the wall because otherwise she would have hit it hard as she swung, there was just enough time for her to put her feet out and catch herself. Gwen grabbed the rope and stopped the fall as she was about a foot from the ground. This caused Lucy to have to do an awkward hopping motion as she found her grip on the wall and tried to undo her karabiner so she could let herself down the last 10 inches or so. Barbara had lost her happy attitude she'd had at the beginning of the day and was about to have a go at Gwen for the way she had acted and the risk she had put Lucy in when she noticed two things. First was the gun on Lucy's hip that had previously been hidden by her leather jacket and secondly the way the rest of the team were standing in what appeared to be a casual way next to Gwen and the rest of the rope but were fully aware of exactly how far Lucy had fallen. Gwen also seemed to have known exactly how far she could let Lucy fall without hurting herself and Lucy was out of the safety harness and on the floor within seconds.  
"You did that on purpose."  
"You dropped me on the floor this morning on purpose." The Welshwoman retaliated and they both smirked at each other, enjoying the challenge. As much as they never talked about it they did respect each other, Lucy knew how far she could push the other woman and was aware that her action that morning would not be without retaliation. They were both enjoying the opportunity for a safe environment to be able to vent their emotions on the each other; in the field they trusted the other on explicitly and at the hub Jack could always shut them up when the argument go too heated. Normally they just agreed to disagree and be polite if not offer the hand of friendship. But here they could really push the limits and get away with it. It was all, mostly, in the spirit of good fun. Mostly.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy woke up screaming which, although her nightmares had been dying down, was not unusual. What was unusual about it was not the shivering that accompanied the scream, nor the tears; but the fact that Ianto was not there to help her calm down and that she fell off the sofa onto the floor in Gwen's front room.  
When she realised where she was Lucy tried to stifle her sobs in one of the cushions so Gwen and Rhys wouldn't find out but it was too late, and she couldn't help but be annoyed that Ianto had trained her out of her silent nightmares. The light flickered into life above her head and the married couple stumbled in, Rhys standing behind his wife who was carrying a gun. When they realised why Lucy had screamed Gwen lowered her gun and sent Rhys into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate for them. After the disaster of the 'trust and team building in the work place' day that Jack had enrolled them all on Jack had ordered that the two were to spend the night together and to find some middle ground. Privately both women thought that Jack was just doing it to remind them that he was the boss and that he could annoy them if he wanted to, they had both spotted him smirking at them during the day and Lucy was willing to put money on the idea that Jack had specifically said they should be paired up. This had led to Gwen calling Rhys and apologising as she told him they would be having a house guest that night and could he put a duvet on the sofa for Lucy? The dinner had been awkward as they made small talk and Ianto and Rhys held most of the conversation, it was only when Ianto left to go back to the flat that Lucy realised it was actually happening and she was forced to spend the night in her 'frenemies' company.

"Lucy?" Gwen said wearily knowing that the younger girl would not like being seen in this state by anyone who was not her boyfriend and especially not by her. "Are you ok?"

Even in her post-nightmare state, still shaking and sobbing, Lucy was able to reply to that question with the contempt it deserved. She simply raised an eyebrow and gave Gwen a look which very clearly said 'are you really that stupid?' while she pulled the cushion she was hugging tighter. She wished it was Ianto instead and that this was the real nightmare and she would soon wake up back in her own bed with Ianto holding her tightly saying it was going to be ok. The idea that Gwen had seen her like this was not something she wanted to be real, she had always dreaded the idea of anyone seeing her after a nightmare, completely weak and useless to anyone - something her father had drilled into her. Although she trusted and loved Ianto part of her still thought that one day he was going to up and leave because coping with her and her nightmares was too much hard work.

"Ok stupid question." Gwen agreed, "Fancy talking about it?"

"I hardly talk to Ianto about it." Lucy replied quietly, into the cushion, as she tried to work out if she could simply get dressed and go home now. "Why would I tell you?"

Before Gwen could reply Rhys called from the kitchen.

"Gwen, can I have a word?"

"Sure" She replied and got up from where she had sat on the floor to join her husband. "What?"

"How old is Lucy?" He said quietly as he poured the hot chocolate into two mugs.

"25" Gwen replied, the only reason she could say with any certainty was because of the infamous chocolate elephant 'incident' earlier that month; they still had most of the elephant in the hub. "Why?"

"Well right now she a scared little girl who needs her boyfriend, but lacking that a friend will have to do. Go easy on her, I know that you don't normally get along, and that's why Jack forced this on you. She's told you time and time again that she was broken before Torchwood and with all the stuff you've said you've seen... well that can't have helped. But I've helped you when you've needed it, so you now you need to help her."

Gwen looked at her husband and kissed him.

"I think I've fallen in love with you all over again." And with that she took the two mugs from his hands and walked back into the lounge where Lucy was curled up on the sofa. She sat down on a nearby chair and was glad to see that the trembling had stopped and that the tears were dying down.

"Heyya, I've got the hot chocolate" She said uncertain where to start, Lucy looked up and gave a small smile which she returned gratefully as she passed over the mug.

They sat in silence for a while just drinking the hot chocolate before Gwen spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

"Why?" Lucy was confused, "I'm hardly the nicest person to you. We both give as good as we've got. Yesterday was just the climax of two years of getting on each other's nerves. Besides, I'm the one who just woke you up in the middle of the night, what have you got to be sorry for?"

"Because I never really knew what you meant when you said you were broken, I'm not really sure I believed you. I've learnt to come home and turn Torchwood off. You..." she didn't know how to finish but she knew that her point had been understood.

"I'm sorry too." Lucy replied, "I didn't like you because I have issues with your character and the way you are portrayed in the show. That kind of amplified any annoyance I had when Jack let you get away with things. I allowed that to cloud my judgement and I suppose I was jealous of you." She looked up from the empty mug at Gwen's shocked face.

"Of me? But why?"

"My mum killed herself because she was screwed up and had post-natal depression on top of everything else. My dad found enjoyment in the bottom of the bottle and wasn't the nicest after a drink, actually he wasn't the nicest before a drink either. I was left with the baby from the age of 14. I didn't mind it, I loved Becky completely – she was as good as mine - but it wasn't fair."

"But the social..." Gwen interrupted. Lucy gave a cold laugh, she couldn't help but still be amazed at how naive Gwen was in her trust in the system.

"Social found out when I was 22 and she was 8, because some bastard hit her with their car and because of that she spent 5 weeks in a coma and then they took her away. So forgive me if I think they are useless. That's why I didn't have a life before Torchwood, I was too busy making sure my sister had one without revealing the truth. And before Becky was born I was looking after my mother and trying to deal with my father as his drinking got worse. So yeah I'm jealous of you, you've had a normal life with everything I ever wanted for Becky. And then I get angry because you still want more – you have no idea how lucky you are." She went back to looking at her empty mug, having surprised herself with how much she had told Gwen about her life before Torchwood. Lucy quickly blamed it on still being in a post-nightmare state.

Gwen got up from the chair and moved to sit next to Lucy on the sofa.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I do forget how lucky I am. And with Rhys..." here she paused so as to work out the right words. "Rhys is safe and brilliant and normal and I love him. He's everything my world stopped being when I joined Torchwood, Owen and Jack were dangerous and out of reach, and the whole thing with Owen. It felt like I could control the danger I was in every day. And you, you know things before anyone and would try and fix problems if you could without screwing with time and when you say things everyone listens no matter how much they don't like it. You've been promoted to the second in command of all of Torchwood and are working on building new ones across the world, you fit in perfectly with this life."

"I let Owen die, Gwen." Lucy said after a few minutes of silence. It had been weighing on her chest for some time and she needed to tell someone, only she couldn't tell Ianto. Not about this, he wouldn't understand and then he'd feel guilty.

"You had no choice." Gwen replied knowing instantly that they were getting somewhere and for once she knew that it would be wrong to push. "We all got that eventually, including Owen."

"No, you don't understand." Lucy persisted, "I _let_ it happen. I knew how to stop Owen's death. I just had to shoot first but I turned my head and looked away. I couldn't do it, I didn't know what it would change and Ianto..."

And in that instant Gwen understood Lucy for the first time; she was broken and could never truly be put back together no matter how much anyone tried, although Ianto was doing as good a job of it as possible. She would laugh and tease throughout the day and at night she would tremble from the nightmares. But most importantly she was aware of all of it and would willingly break even more if only to keep the people she loved safe and had learnt to build a perfect mask that was so permanent that Lucy really didn't know who she was without it. The mask had become the person and Lucy just kept on going, because she had never known any different. She was a good person, but would never be without the dark shadows in her eyes that hinted towards knowing horrors no one else could ever be able to understand.

Gwen also knew that she would do the same for Rhys and that she had no room to judge because she had once made the same decision to let people die for her love. Only she only had a slight chance of getting Rhys back and she risked opening the rift and the lives of everyone in Cardiff, south Wales and possibly the lives of everyone in the world if Jack or Jack's Doctor couldn't stop it.

Lucy was starting to get tired again and didn't really want the conversation to continue so she decided it was time for them to go back to bed. It was 2:57am.

"I'm sorry I screamed and woke you and Rhys up, you should go back to him."

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked, knowing that she would never again be able to get so angry with her youngest co-worker as whenever she did the image of her curled up on her sofa shaking from a nightmare would haunt her as would what she had learnt this night, Lucy nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, waking up this early and like this isn't unusual. Honestly I'll be fine, promise. And if we're late well I'm your boss anyway and I'll let you off."

Even though the topic of conversation before had been dark and serious Gwen couldn't help but smile.

"Your version of fine really means 'I'm not going to die in the next few minutes.' In fact if I remember correctly you had a bullet in your leg but you were still fine."

Lucy gave Gwen a proper smile for the first time.

"Ianto doesn't let me forget, that and the Roman with his sword." She lightly fingered the scar on her neck.

"Well he has a point." Gwen pointed out, "Although I think you said you were ok then, not fine. Anyway, are you going to be ok if I leave you?"

"I'll be fine." Lucy insisted. "Go back to you husband."

Gwen got up and moved towards the door to her room.

"Lucy?"

"Hmm?" Lucy replied as she pulled the duvet up off the floor.

"I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks Gwen."

"No problem" And with that Gwen turned the lounge light off and rejoined Rhys in bed.

Rhys rolled over and gave her a hug.

"Everything ok?" Gwen looked at him for a bit, thinking about what had happened before she replied.

"Yeah and I think in that in a weird way it might have done what Jack wanted it too. I will tell Ianto she woke up screaming though. Come on, let's get back to sleep, Lucy and I have to be at work in 6 hours. Alien invasion providing."

**A/N: I love all of you guys, that is all. See you again next week**


	65. Chapter 65 - Fragments, Part 2

**Welcome to the 2nd half of Fragments/The actual episode/THE BEGINNING OF THE END!**

Lucy woke up to her phone ringing, she fumbled for it while orientating herself in the sofa as she nearly fell off, forgetting in those first moments that she was not in her bed with Ianto but on the sofa in Gwen's lounge.

"Lucy Smith." She answered, knowing it would be a call to work. Any call was almost always work, any call first thing in the morning and she would be willing to place money on it being Jack saying something had happened over night and they were needed to save the world once more, or to at least save Cardiff. She checked the time and was surprised to see it was already 8:30 and she had overslept, normally she would have been in the hub for an hour already.

"_Hi Lu." _Ianto said. _"You and Gwen planning on coming in this morning?"_

"Waking her up now." Lucy replied as she got up and hit Gwen's bedroom door. "We missing anything?"

"_Weird energy spike in one of the old warehouses out of town. We're already on our way_." She could hear Owen and Tosh say something on the other side but wasn't able to make out any of the words. "T_osh says it's definitely not Weevils, the energy spike is different. We've got four life signs_. _I'll text you the address_"

"We'll be there as soon as we can." Lucy promised as she grabbed her clothes. "Love you Ianto."

"_You too_."

"And be careful." She reminded him.

"_Always_." With that Ianto hung up and she hit on the bedroom door again.

"Come _on_ Gwen, we're needed in the field. Rhys can we have a lift?"

Ten minutes later Rhys was driving them down one of the old roads out of Cardiff to what used to be the industrial unit. It was only when they were driving down the dirt track and she saw the building that Lucy recognised it and realised what was about to happen. This was it, the beginning of the end.  
"Shit! Rhys stop the car." She said, leaning forward.  
"What? Why?" He glanced back at her, aware that she was Gwen's boss but unsure if that meant he should follow her orders too.  
"Rhys just do it." Lucy ordered, not having time to explain. She had been dreading these episodes nearly as much as she was dreading Children on Earth. Rhys glanced to Gwen who nodded, he put his foot on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt. Gwen looked over at Lucy.

"You know what's going to happen"  
"I know that building is going to explode any minute and if we are in the danger zone we can't help the others."

"Sorry that building is going to what?" Rhys turned round to face Lucy as well, almost as though it was timed with Rhys' question, the building did what Lucy knew it was going to, it exploded.

Fire and dust blew out of every window with the force of what Lucy knew to be four bombs. The SUV was parked far enough away that it was untouched but only just. The area surrounding the warehouse hadn't survived untouched either, it was covered in debris.

"Lucy?" Gwen asked as Lucy jumped out of the car. "Please tell me the others aren't in there?"  
"Of course they are. Four life signs, four of them, four bombs. We need to get them out of there, leave Jack for last. Right now I'm in charge of Torchwood, understand?"  
"Understood." Gwen nodded. "Rhys you come with me."

"You two take the back way, you may need to split up. If you find Jack tell him that I gave orders to leave him and to come back for him last. He can have a go at me for it later. If he can get himself out and help you, brilliant, if not come back for him."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll take the front. You've got your mobile, call me the second you find any of them and they are safe for the moment. This place could be wired so I want us out of here as soon as possible, preferably within the hour."

Gwen nodded, Rhys seemed unsure and worried for the safety of him and his wife but didn't say anything. Much like the day he discovered what Gwen did for a living he knew that this was what she was good at and he had to trust her to get them out to safety, for him to lag behind would only put them in more danger.

Lucy ran across the debris ridden field, making sure to jump over anything large that could impede her way. She didn't have the time to fall over, she had to get to the rest of team, the team that were now her responsibility. To pull them out before John could set off another bomb and then to save Cardiff, and then she was going to save Tosh. She couldn't go through it again, letting one of her friends die because she wanted to save Ianto. Last night while talking to Gwen things were still abstract. Things were real now and this time things were going to change and she was going to keep her friend safe. It might mean that Ianto would die in the future but she would still be able to walk into Thames House instead of him, he could die days after or he could not. She had no idea what would happen after the 456 invaded the planet, her knowledge would run out which was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that she didn't know if the future would be changed or not or what risk she was doing to the time line.

But in that instant Lucy Smith didn't care about the timelines or anything past the next few days. She had come to this universe with the knowledge to change things, to save people's lives and she hadn't been able to do that. It wasn't just her past that haunted her nights it was the future as well and what she had been unable to change, the deaths she had allowed to happen. Screw the future, and the timelines, or what the Time Lords would have said. If they wanted her friends to die they were wrong, she couldn't do it. Things were going to change.

"TOSH!" She shouted as she ran into the abandoned warehouse. "JACK! IANTO! OWEN!"

There was no response and she hit a fork in the corridor. Knowing the John would have placed the bombs as far away from each other as possible she knew that there would be one either end, knowing she'd reach at least one of her friends she turned right.

At the end of the corridor she found Jack's dead body, she was about to turn away and run back down the way she had come when the Captain gasped back to life.

"Lucy!" He breathed.

"If you can get yourself out of there, great. If not I'm going for Tosh."

"She went the other way." Jack said as he started to push bits of pillars off himself and pull himself out of the wreckage. He hissed in pain as his body started to knit itself back together. Lucy had waited for too long and heard a call of pain from the other end of the corridor.

"Go." Jack obviously agreed with her. "I'll catch you up."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Tosh, Tosh, are you ok? Can you move your feet?" Lucy asked as she started to work out which bits of rubble to remove first.

"You're making it worse." Tosh cried out as Lucy tried to shift the biggest piece off the top.

"I know, and this is going to hurt. But you are going to live Tosh. You hear me. Fuck timelines I'm not letting you die." She eventually shoved it off which meant she had easier access to the girder that was on top of Tosh.  
"It's pushing down even more. I think I've broken my arm. Lucy?"  
"Yeah?"  
"If this pillar shifts down even more it'll crush me."  
"I know, that's why I'm going to get you out of here. Can you move your feet?" Lucy repeated her earlier question as she moved round the other side of Tosh and leant over grabbing the one that was on top of Tosh's head. She saw a small movement of rubble where she knew Tosh's feet were and breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok, they moved Tosh. You're not paralysed. This is going to hurt like hell but I'm going to pull the piece above your head off and you need to move out as soon as possible."

"I can't."  
"Yes you can. Gwen and Rhys went the other way so they'll find Owen and Ianto. Jack's died but he's alive again and pulling himself out, so you've just got me."  
"Why didn't you save Jack?"  
"Because he can live through anything. You can't. And anyway I'm your boss remember, you can't question orders. On the count of three, I'm going to pull on this incredibly heavy boulder and you are going to use your non-broken arm to push off and roll out? Ready"  
"No. I can't do it Lucy."

"We've got to hurry." Lucy sighed moving back round and crouching down so she could hold Tosh's hand. "Do you want me to call for Jack, see if he can come help?"

Tosh nodded and Lucy sighed.

"Ok then. I'll be back in two minutes. Ok Tosh? Two minutes. No matter what state Jack is in, whether he can help or not when I come back we are going to get you out of there. I'll see if I can find a crossbar or something I can use as a lever."

She let go of Tosh's hand and started to run back to where she had left Jack, keeping an eye out for anything to help her lift the rubble from above Tosh's head. Jack was stumbling down the corridor and had evidently only just freed himself.

"Come on." Lucy said grabbing his hand and pulling at him. "I'm glad you are alive Jack and normally I'd let you recover, but right now I can't do that. And this may kill you again – probably won't but sorry. In advance, just in case."

Jack followed along behind her only tripping up twice, as they reached Tosh it was obvious she was trying not try cry out in pain and relief when she saw that Lucy had Jack with her as well.

"Right Jack, you need to go round the other side and lift that boulder, Tosh the second you are free of it I'm going to help pull you out. Jack, you drop that as soon as she's free and help her while I run to find the others. Oh and Rhys is here as well, he gave us a lift in this morning. But as you were dead I took charge so you didn't really have a say in the matter. Ready?"

Jack nodded and Tosh whimpered in pain but nodded too.

"Good, one..."  
"Two..."  
"Three."  
Jack heaved the rubble and Lucy grabbed Tosh's arms, Tosh screamed in pain but helped as much as she could by letting Lucy pull her out and rolling on her side. The second she was out of danger Jack dropped the concrete, it landed where Tosh's head had been and broke into pieces. If Tosh had still been there it would have smashed her head in and she obviously knew it because she whimpered in shock.

"It's fine Tosh, we got you out." Lucy reassured her. "You're alive and survived a bomb and a pillar falling on top of you with just a broken arm. I'd say that makes it a good day. Jack?"  
"I'm fine." Jack reassured her. "You go find Ianto."  
"You sure?" Lucy wanted to run to Ianto, to pull him out of danger and check him over. Force him to the safety of the flat and never leave again but she knew that wasn't possible. Plus she had to check that Tosh and Jack were ok, that she wouldn't be running off and leaving them the two of them to collapse.

"We're fine." Tosh reassured her as she pulled herself up to a sitting position and cradled her broken left arm. "Just go." Lucy didn't ask twice and was moving before Tosh even finished speaking.

"Thanks!" She shouted running down the corridor. "Call Gwen, let her know that your safe."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"IANTO!" Lucy called as she ran down the other side of the warehouse. "GWEN? OWEN?"

"Lucy." Gwen said running up to her, "We've found Owen. He's got a plane of glass hanging over him. Rhys is with him now while I get back up."  
"Shoot the glass and get him to cover his face, use rubble if needed." Lucy ordered. "Have you found Ianto yet?"  
"No not yet."  
"So he's in the other corner." Lucy sighed, looking in the opposite direction that Gwen had come from. "He's over there. Oh god let him be ok..."

"How's Tosh?"  
"Broken arm and shock but fine. Jack's alive and with her. Go back to Rhys and get Owen out and then go and get the others, Owen will need to give Tosh a quick check up, she might have concussion and will definitely need the pain relief from the SUV. Then get the hell out of here. Don't wait for us, we'll meet you outside. This place could still be wired and I don't want anyone in here for a second longer than needed. Once you are out of here call Nick in London, tell him to be on high alert and that he might need to take over at any minute. This was a trap and once whoever laid it sees we're alive they'll try something else. I don't want them down here until we know it's safe. Whatever happens Torchwood has to continue in some shape or form."

"Ok." Gwen nodded, she wasn't happy about the idea of leaving her friends in danger but knew and order from her superiors when she heard one. She might not have liked the fact that Lucy got the promotion and was now second in command of the organisation but right now she was grateful for it. It took some of the weight off her shoulders. There were some orders from Lucy that she argued against, loudly, but Gwen was aware that ones like the one that had just been issued were not things you could fight against. "Good luck." She said as they both turned to go to the respective corners of the building.

"I'll see you outside by the SUV." Lucy agreed and started to run again. "IANTO! YAN!"

"CARIAD!" She finally heard him reply and almost fell over in relief, she knew that the team all survived this. The building falling on top of them was just a prelude of what was to come but she was unable to remember how badly hurt they all were. "LUCY!"

"I'M COMING." She shouted in the direction of where he had called. "KEEP SHOUTING."  
"I'M HERE. HELP ME."

His voice was getting louder and she eventually turned a corner to see the Ianto's head and an arm as he tried to pull himself out from the file of rubble that had fallen on top of him.

"You're ok." She breathed. "Oh thank flying fuck you're ok."  
"Get me out."

"I will." She promised. "Can you feel your feet?" There was a pause and Lucy held her breath before he replied  
"Yes. They hurt"  
"A building collapsed on top of you, tends to hurt. Right." She moved railings and climbed on the pile of rubble, careful where she put her feet so as not to push any more on top of him.

"Are you ok?" Ianto asked worried, she hadn't seemed badly hurt but as she had used a pain killer she had kept going for a good few hours when she was attacked by the Roman solider there was really no way of knowing. There were times when Lucy was simply too stubborn to listen to her body telling her it was in pain and that she should stop.  
"We got here just as the building exploded." Lucy replied. "I'm fine. Tosh's in shock and has a broken arm, Jack died but he's fine now. Owen's still dead but still moving, I think... Rhys and Gwen are with him. Just need to get you out."

"Argh!" He called out in pain as he tried to pull himself forward using his free hand, Lucy jumped down, she had moved as much as possible and was scared of moving any more without being able to see how it was all positioned. Pushing anything else off the top could push more onto Ianto and crush him.

"If you die and I spent your last night on the planet on Gwen's sofa, I'll never forgive you." She warned as she grabbed his hand.

"I'll try to remember that." Ianto laughed, but it quickly became a hacking cough as more dust fell on him.

"You can't die on me Ianto Jones." Lucy said gently brushing tears of pain from his face. "I'm going to get you out of here."  
"My hero." He said teasingly before turning serious again "Lucy..."  
"Yeah?" She moved so she was standing over him and leant down to grab at his shoulders and heave him out. The scars all over her body felt tight as she tugged at them, especially the ones at the base of her back and on her neck, she circled her shoulders to try and get rid of any tightness or aches from where she had freed Tosh.

"You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes..."  
"You're not dying on me Ianto. I'm not going to let you. We've just about to buy our own place, a proper house."  
"I couldn't help remembering how I joined Torchwood Cardiff..."

"You pestering Jack for a job and then finding Myfwany?"  
"Yeah. And then how you appeared from nowhere."

"I fell from the sky and into your life... like a real life fairy tale. Now, we're going to stop talking like you are on your death bed because you are going to defy all Torchwood statistics and retire and live a long and happy life. I'm going to pull you out of there but I'll need your help."

"Ok. Get me out of here." Ianto nodded and Lucy pulled at him, she felt his shoulder give way as he screamed in pain.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHH"

"I'm sorry Yan." She whimpered, holding him as tightly as she dared as he stood.

"It's fine. I'm alive, I'm alive..."

"Your shoulder. I felt it give."  
"It's dislocated. You're going to have to put it back in. I know you don't want to hurt me, but I can't do it myself."  
"Ok." Lucy agreed amping herself up for it and positioning her hands on his shoulder, ready to push it back in. "On three?"  
"No – ARGH."  
"Sorry." Lucy winced apologising put his arm around her so she could help him out. It was one of the things Owen had taught them in the basic first aid lessons; in cases of dislocation never do it when the patient expects it.

"No, you were right. The others?"  
"Out of here already, hopefully. Is your headset working?"

"It got destroyed in the explosion."

"We're meeting them out there. Come on, boss's orders. We're getting out of here"

"Your orders or Jack's?"

"Mine but I'm still your boss aren't I? Besides Jack died which left me in charge of all of Torchwood for at least 5 minutes."

Ianto gave a chocked laugh and the pair of them hobbled out of the building and were relieved to see Jack, Tosh, Gwen, Rhys and Owen hobbling out of another exit.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"How are you?" Ianto asked Tosh as they met up.

"Broken arm, bruised ribs. I was about an inch away from being crushed by a girder. Lucy pulled me out."  
"I helped a bit." Jack said before adding. "but I agree, Lucy and Gwen were brilliant. Rhys you weren't bad either. Even though I'm not happy you're here."  
"Hey, you were out of action. It was my call." Lucy admonished.

"What happened? Who did this?" Owen asked. Jack's wrist strap beeped and Lucy growled.

"We're about to find out. Jack..."  
"Lucy do you know what's going on?" Jack asked before he answered it.

"It doesn't matter what I know cause things are going to change. Just answer that damn thing and let's get out of here."

If the team were surprised at her ferocity they didn't mention it, instead Jack answered the call on his wrist strap and a hologram of 'Captain' John Heart appeared.

"_Oh, déja vu. Or did I say that already? Hey, team!"_

"Oh no." Ianto breathed, Lucy just gripped his hand tightly. She was going to get them out of this alive. The only person going to die was Grey, she would see to that herself, no matter what Jack said.

"_Of course, there might be a few less of you by now. Don't know if you liked my little gift. Of course, you can't die. And with all that life, all that time, you can't spare any for me. Oh." _He acted like he had just remembered something but they could all see it was staged as he lifted his own wrist to show the similar – but smaller – vortex manipulator. "_Say hi to the family."_

John pressed a button and produced a hologram of his own, no one on the team apart from Jack and Lucy recognised him. Jack stared in shock and disbelief

"No... it can't be." He said in denial.

"_Been a while since you've seen your brother, eh, Jack?"_

"Grey?!"

"_Ok, here is what's going to happen. Everything you love, everything you treasure, will die. I'm going to tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness. Piece by piece, starting now. Maybe now you'll want to spend some time with me."_

**This really does feel like the beginning of the end but I'm pleased to tell you that we're not nearing the end of Lucy's story, just series 2. She's got plenty of weeks of chapters and adventures left, including meeting with the Doctor.**

**As always please review and let me know what you think and I'll see you next week.**

**Rea**


	66. Chapter 66 - Exit Wounds, Part 1

"Bastard John's taken our SUV" Owen complained as he helped carry Tosh back to Rhys' car.

"It looks like he's driven it to the hub." Ianto said looking at the scanner.

"I'm getting readings of rift activity all over the city. Major rift flares at St. Helen's hospital, the police head quarters and the Central IT server station." Tosh said stumbling as she tried to walk and read her scanner at the same time

Gwen's phone went off.

"Hey Andy... Ok, I'm on my way..." She hung up "I'm needed at the police station."

"Lucy?" Ianto asked seeing the anger in her eyes. "Lucy do you know what's happening?"

"I need 45 minutes. Give me 45 minutes, Jack."  
"We don't have 45 minutes." Owen complained. "Major incident happening right now, we need all hands on deck."  
"I am trying to stop people dying." Lucy spat out angrily. "I couldn't stop your death and I'm sorry. But this whole being a passive person and letting things happen stops now. Right now! I need 45 minutes to watch the episode and remind myself of exactly what happens so I can work out how to change it. No one else dies. This time everyone's going to live. JACK!"  
"What?" He was still out of sorts from seeing the hologram of his younger brother.

"Snap out of it. We need the Captain right now. Drop Gwen and Rhys off at the Police Station, Owen at the hospital, Ianto and Tosh can help at the Server station while we get to Torchwood."  
"We're not all going to fit in the car." Rhys complained

"We're going to have to." Jack said coming out of shock and returning to the situation they were dealing with. "Be careful everyone, you know what John is capable of."

"What are you going to do?" Gwen asked.

"I'm going to reason with him and get Lucy those 45 minutes she needs."

"He just tried to kill us." The medic pointed out.

"I was the only one who could ever control him. That's why the Time Agency partnered us. Lucy are you sure that this is a good idea, changing thing?"  
"I'm not just going to sit by again. I can't Jack. I let Owen die because I thought it was supposed to happen..."  
"But the Doctor..."  
"Screw the Doctor. He has no idea what could happen either. These things are only fixed because I know them from a different universe."  
"Ok." Jack nodded. "Ok, you need 45 minutes?"  
"Long enough to watch the episode. I can give you a rough idea of what's going to happen but I've not watched Torchwood properly since Owen died and even before then I had decided to stick to Doctor Who. What I know won't be enough."

"Hang on." Owen said as they squished into the car. "Does that mean everything you've remembered so far has just been completely from memory? You've not watched it since you came here?"  
"I've got a good memory for TV shows." Lucy shrugged. "Now let's go."

"Why is he doing this, Jack?" Gwen asked as Rhys started to drive. "What does he want?"

"That's what I'm going to ask him."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Go the back way." Jack ordered Lucy. "Through the archives." It was an exit that only the two of them and Ianto knew about and was to be used in situations like these when the hub had been taken over by the enemy. "Stay out of sight."  
"Good luck Jack." Lucy said seriously. "Don't trust him."

"If I die..."  
"Then I'll take control. I'm going to do everything I can to keep the team safe." Lucy promised.

"Ok." He nodded. "Go."

Lucy gave him a quick hug, removed Cecil from her holster and moved further down the bay slipping down an alleyway and into a side door. She entered the code and had her retina scanned and walked in, ending up at the back of the archives.

A couple of minutes later she had reached her safe and placed her hand against the scanner the red light turned green and she pulled out the red DVD box, locked herself in a back room and put the disk containing episode 13 of series 2 into the computer. Using the back door into the computer system and sending a quick prayer of thanks to Tosh for her endless patience in teaching her how to get around the system and how to do it without being noticed. She watched John shoot Jack on the CCTV and sent a quick text to the team letting them know that Jack was down and that they were to stay out of the hub for the next 45 minutes until she said it was safe and to only contact her in cases of life and death. As well as a message to Nick and UNIT to let them know that Cardiff was under attack and that Torchwood were dealing with it, they were to stay out of the city until she gave the all clear or they received a message saying she was dead.

She started playing 'Exit Wounds' with a notebook next to her making note of anything of importance she could remember, trying to work out a way to get them all out of it alive. The main point she had was that Jack would be dead for most of the episode, which meant that it was all on her. She had to do everything possible to make sure that Tosh was not left in the hub alone and to get Owen out before the radiation leaked; ideally he wouldn't be anywhere near there. After a brief internal debate she decided it would be ok for Ianto, Gwen and John to be trapped downstairs as that meant they were out of Grey's reach, providing they took weevil spray and more than one armed gun on them (not that that would be a problem for John).

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

45 minutes later Lucy turned the computer off. John had taken Jack out of the hub and she knew that they were on their way to Cardiff Castle, John was going to set off the bombs in the next few minutes and then they would be running alone. Anger ran through her body as much as blood and she refused to let herself to think of anything else apart from how things were going to change. She was going to save Tosh's life and when Children of Earth started as well she would save Ianto's, they might even be able to save the children with Tosh's help. Lucy was finished with being a doormat and letting things happen the 'way there were supposed to'. Just because things had happened like the TV show before didn't mean it had to continue happening that way. She was done following the rules. Lucy didn't have a full plan for how she was going to get them all out of this, but she knew she had to try.

"_Attention, Torchwood employees. Evening all." _John spoke breaking the silence between them. "_Now, stop what you are doing."  
"Jack, what's going on? Are you ok?" _Gwen asked

"_Jack can't come to the comms right now but if you leave a message, I'll be sure to pass it along."_

"You've got one chance Wanker." Lucy said as she ran through the hub, grabbing a couple of extra weevils sprays. "One chance to stop this."

"_Oh it's the lovely Lucy. I'm afraid it's out of my hands."_

"I'm going to stop your boss. He won't survive this. I know what he's going to do and I know where he's going to be so that I can kill him."  
"_Jack won't let you."  
_"He'll get over it. We do what's needed and not necessarily what's good or right. But I promise you that I'll kill him, so you've got once chance. Help us and I won't kill you too, but if you continue with this I can't guarantee you'll live."

"_That was so masterful, so but you're powerless, I mean I almost believed you."_

"There's been a small change in the team since you were last here. If Jack dies I take control of Torchwood, and I've not got an emotional attachment to the pair of you, not like him. Put Jack on."

"_I'm afraid he's a bit busy." _John replied after a small pause and Lucy thought she might have gotten through to him.

"_What have you done to him?" _Gwen asked and John seemed to pull himself together, glad to be on safer ground.

"_Wrong question, the right question is what am I going to do to you? Get to the roofs of your buildings, quickly now. Spit-spot."  
_"Your choice." Lucy sighed, she didn't think she was going to get John on their side, not yet anyway, not until Grey released him from his bindings, but it would have helped. "Guys, do what he said." She ordered, for the first time the weight of Jack making her the second in command fully sat on her shoulders, it wasn't just a title any more, it was a responsibility and it was heavy. She thought she had understood earlier that day when the building exploded but this was different. That was like trying a coat on in a shop, this was like wearing it home in the pouring rain.

"_Why?" _Owen asked as Lucy ran into the millennium building and after flashing her badge at the guy on the front desk who tried to stop her, she ran up the fire escape going to the highest ground possible at that moment in time. She might know what John was about to do but that didn't change the fact she needed to see it first hand, to have a proper idea of where he destroyed the city and what Torchwood could do to put it back together once this was all done.

"_Because if you don't, you'll miss all the fun. Wait a minute. Do I mean fun? Do I mean carnage? I get them confused. Are you running yet? No dawdling now."_

She had only just reached the top of the steps, and was busy catching her breath when John spoke again.

"_Isn't Cardiff lovely, doesn't it twinkle so? Remember this, 'cause it all goes so quick."_

She watched as John set off the bombs he had placed around the city, in prime areas that were heavily populated at this time of day. She watched as John Heart, under orders from Grey, destroyed her home.

"_Jack, Jack can you hear me? Lucy?" _Gwen called and Lucy took a deep breath, there was no time to allow her resolve to waver, she knew this was going to happen and could grieve later.

"_I'm tracking a huge rift over the castle. It's been generated by the rift manipulator at Torchwood." _Tosh said.

"Right, I'm here and until we find out otherwise presume Jack is down. Are you all ok?"

"_Yeah, we're fine." _Ianto said, speaking for himself and Toshiko._  
"I'm ok." _Owen added.

"Good, what's the scale of the damage across the city?"  
"_Fifteen major explosions at strategic points across the city." _Tosh replied. "_He's taken out some residential areas as well. There's currently a surge in traffic of people trying to leave but all major routes in and out have been cut off. Landlines, mobiles and IT networks are all down. TV and radio off air, he's completely crippled us Lucy."_

"I know, but I'm ahead of him, _we're_ ahead of him."  
"_I don't want to be the harbinger of doom but the systems that stabilises the power plant are all offline. Lucy? Gwen? What do we do?"_

"Ok, well John took Jack, for the record now Jack is gone I can tell you that John is working for Jack's brother. Grey. He's a psychopath and blames Jack for ruining his life because of something that happened when they were children. Gwen I need you to organise the police force, find out if Katrina was back from her holiday when they released the weevils. I'm hoping to god she wasn't because that means she's alive and you can pull her in. Owen, organise the hospital. Tosh, you and Ianto need to stabilise the nuclear power station, that needs to be a priority. There's no point saving this city for it to become a nuclear waste ground. You'll need to leave now and run to get there on time. Owen I don't want you going anywhere near there. I mean that, you are to stay away from the power station, I don't know what the radioactivity will do to your body" Lucy lied but hoped that it was enough to keep him safe.

"Ianto while Tosh is being clever and you're following her orders I want want you to call the army in the Brecons, get them down here and have them helping the civilians, to the best of my knowledge there's not going to be any more explosions so we need to stop the city panicking and get as many people to safety as possible. They are almost certainly on their way down as soon as they can mobilise anyway but make sure they know that we are in control and that they can do their job as long as they don't get in the way of us doing ours. You and Gwen should call your families first and let them know that we are safe. That's for all of you; call your parents, anyone who might hear the news and worry, let them know you are safe. I'm going to call UNIT and remind them that Cardiff is not under their jurisdiction and that we are dealing with it. I'll meet you all back at the hub in half an hour."

"_Are you ok?" _Ianto asked.

"I'm angry and not hurt, went into the hub the back way so John didn't see me. Things are going to change. I couldn't stop the bombs, but I'm going to stop the rest. Screw the rules of time no one else is going to die. Apart from Grey and I'll kill him myself. Any questions?"

"_We've lost all power at the hospital, the back up generators gave out in the blast, every single machine in the hospital is down. It's a disaster what are we supposed to do?" _Owen asked._  
"_Gwen can you get extra power for them?" Lucy asked, she had watched this less than an hour ago and thought she had plans, had ways of fixing it but now it was happening she was having to do her best not to panic, she focussed on the image of Tosh's dead body and used that to keep herself going and remember her plans.

"_Um, yeah. It's not going to be easy but I can do something."_

"Good, Owen you need to find someone who can fix it as your first priority. They'll be someone coming into the hospital who can work machines. Find someone in the hospital to act as a point of contact so you can leave but still be in charge of what's happening. Right, if I die you and Gwen have my job ok? Bleeding heart and all, Owen you may be a zombie but you're good at your job, the two of you together should be fine and make sure Jack doesn't get complacent."  
"_You're not going to die." _Ianto said forcefully, although they could all hear the worry in his voice.

"I have no plans on dying but I just needed to make sure you knew. Jack's out for most of this episode either dead or in Cardiff's history so we're left alone. Gwen? Owen? I need to hear you accept that. I don't say it lightly. This is dangerous, time wants things to happen in a certain way but I am fighting back. It could end badly, so I need you to understand that if I die Torchwood is yours."  
"_Yes." _Owen snapped. "_Yes, ok."  
"Yeah." _Gwen agreed too.

"Good. Now this is our city, so let's put it back together. Tosh, you're injured so I don't want you left alone."  
"_I feel fine." _Tosh said.

"Humour me. Any more questions?"

"_Hang on we have a back door?" _Owen asked suddenly and Lucy couldn't help but smile a bit, it was such an Owen thing to do in the middle of a crisis, pick up on the small bits.

"Yes, if we survive this I promise to show you where it is. Now, is there any other questions? Any _relevant_ questions?"

They all replied in the negative and Lucy walked back down the fire escape into the lobby where people were streaming out of the theatre worried and confused after having heard the explosions. She pushed through the crowd until she was at the front desk.

"Have you got a microphone or something I can use to talk to everyone?" Lucy asked the poor sod who was trying to answer questions, even though he knew no more than them.

"Um, yes... but who are you?"  
"Torchwood." Lucy said showing her ID. "I'll speak to them, just get me that microphone."

His face flooded with colour as he was relieved that someone was taking the duty from him and quickly rushed to get a microphone that was connected to the speakers so everyone would be able to listen to what Lucy had to say. He passed it over and Lucy jumped up onto the desk so people could see her.

"HEY!" She called over the mix of voices. "I WILL ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS IF YOU JUST SHUT UP!" It definitely worked because the lobby full of sound fell quiet and turned to look at her. "Thank you. My name is Lucy and I work for a special branch of the government, for Torchwood. I know that even though you don't talk about us, you all know that we exist. I'm sorry to tell you that there was a terrorist attack on Cardiff, someone detonated 15 bombs across our city."

There was shocked murmurings and Lucy let them talk for a bit before she spoke again.

"To the best of our knowledge there are no more bombs but it has caused many of the taller buildings to collapse and we are not sure of the total amount of damage. We are organising search and rescue and have the army coming in to help the police force while another one of my colleagues is sorting out the hospital. If anyone has any medical training please make yourself known to whoever is running the trauma sites or one of the hospitals. I can understand that you want to get out of Cardiff and you want to contact your families and check that they are ok while telling others that you are fine. I'm afraid at this time I can't tell you anything more but I promise that we will arrest the people who have caused this and they will face justice." She was about to jump down when she thought of something else.

"If you have spare rooms or somewhere that people can stay whose homes are damaged please report them to the front desk who will take your address and a contact number. Cardiff will stand as one against the people who think we can destroy us. Thank you for your time." This time she did jump down and passed the microphone back to the acne ridden youth who was staring at her in shock.

"What's your name?"

"James, James Aldermost, I'm only here to get some extra money for uni."  
"Right James, I need you to not panic ok, you're only a few years younger than me and people are going to remember what you do today for the rest of their lives..."  
"But my manager..."  
"Is not here right now and you are." Lucy interrupted him. "I need you to help organise these people. They are panicking and you need to be strong. I want a list of addresses that people can stay at, I'm going to get the police to send people here because the bay was one of the few places they didn't hit. Torchwood will foot the bill so just feed them as much as you can from what you have, send some people to Sainsbury's to get more food when needed, point out that donations would be preferred but that Torchwood will pay for it if they insist. You're my contact ok, James?"

"But..."  
"Ok, James?"  
"Yeah." He swallowed. "Ok. So you need spare rooms? I think there's some rooms left in my hall at uni and I know people who'd offer their room and just share with a mate."  
"Anything that could be useful. Send someone to co-ordinate with the hospital, get names of the injured. We don't want to flood the hospital with worried family members, the doctors have a hard enough job on their hands and the top members of the police force were attacked earlier today as well so they're not running at their best either. I've got one of my best people organising them, hang on..." She pulled out her phone and wrote down Andy's mobile number as well as her own. "Call PC Andy Davidson and tell him what I've told you. He's going to be your police contact, our doctor is organising a hospital contact but Andy might have someone you can use. You've got my number there as well but I'm going to be busy for the next few hours so only call me if you and Andy absolutely need too."

"Excuse me." An older balding man appeared having pushed his way through the crowds. "I'm the manager – Steven Fletcher, can you please tell me..."  
"James knows everything and is my contact for this place." Lucy said patting James on the shoulder.

"Yes but I'm the manager."

"I understand you are the manager sir but right now I'll need you to listen to him and help him organise this place into a suitable information centre. You're going to have a lot of people coming your way."

"But, how dare you..."  
"Um... Lucy?" James said thinking of something and interrupting his boss "One of my friends works at Millets, he could probably get blankets and sleeping bags."  
"Brilliant, you organise that. Try and get them as donations to the cause, use your contacts. I'd love to have the uni students keeping everyone calm and proving to people that it's going to be ok. You know this city and you know people. You also know what it's like to work all night and panic and stress about things and yet to still get it done and find time to go out with mates too – well mostly if the stories I hear are right, I never went. Anyway, maybe you can send people over to the BBC? They must have blankets and stuff you can use, costumes and if nothing else spaces where people can stay. The fact that that wasn't where one of the bombs was placed is a thing in our favour. So let's use it to the best of our ability. People here are worried and you need to keep them calm. Think you can do it?"  
"I think so."  
"Good. Do this well and I'll write you a reference for whatever job you want, might even have a job for you once you finish uni. Mr Fletcher if you just listen to James he'll tell you exactly what I need, now if you could let me through. I've got to co-ordinate with my team and get this situation dealt with without losing any more lives."

She walked out before the manager could complain and heard James call for an organised line for everyone to stay calm and patient, as well as ordering his boss to get the food stands to start handing out food.

"Gwen?" She called over the headsets.

"_Yeah, I've got the police together and doing their job. Katerina wasn't back yet and is on her way in, she'll be here as soon as she can."  
_"Good, I've set up the millennium centre as a crisis and information point. Young lad called James is my contact. I've given him Andy's phone number so if you could get him to be the police contact. We're getting addresses for people who have spare rooms and places for people to stay if their homes were damaged in the explosion. Plus going over to see if the BBC have stuff they can offer and making sure everyone gets food. Owen, I sent any doctors and medics your way. We'll need someone to co-ordinate with them in the hospital, I told them not to go there to find out about family members so a list of the injured would be useful. Any update on the hospital?"_  
"I'll find someone to help. We've got technicians looking at the generators know and they reckon they can fix it." _Owen promised. "_Until then we're just using manual life support."_

"_Army are on their way in." _Ianto said, _"they're not happy about it but understand this is a crisis situation so have agreed to be under our command."_

"I'll see you all back at the hub. Tosh how are you? Owen's magic drugs working?"

"_I feel fine. He gave me the good stuff."  
_"Well try not to overdo it. You were being squished under a girder only a few hours ago."

"_I'll be fine."  
_"I think that's my line." Lucy gave a small laugh. "Right, I'm going to argue with UNIT, see you all back at the hub once this is over. Good luck guys, today is the day we earn that bloody big pay check of ours."

"General Howath." The general picked up on the first ring, he had obviously been waiting for this phone call. "What the hell is going on in Torchwood, we've just had reports of bombs going off in the centre of Cardiff as well as some of the residential areas on the outskirts. Splott's been attacked. Who'd want to attack Splott?"

"We're deal with the situation. Someone from Torchwood's past is back and not happy with us." Lucy said. "I've just called to remind you that you have no jurisdiction over Cardiff and to let you know that we do not need your help."  
"Now listen to me Miss Smith."  
"No, listen you to me. You can get annoyed at me but you know full damn well that UNIT are only allowed in Cardiff when we ask for help and we are _not_ asking for help."

"You only have a small team, surely having a few extra members..."  
"We have organised the police force, have a crisis centre sorted where civilians can go to try and find out what's happened to their families and offer spare rooms for people whose houses are damaged. Our medic is helping to organise the hospitals and co-ordinating with the crisis centre while we've also got the army base by the Brecons to come and be a presence to help people stay calm. What do you think UNIT will actually be able to do that we can't do ourselves? We _**are**_ dealing with it."

"..."  
"Exactly." Lucy sighed, and tried to calm down as she pushed open the door to the tourist office. "We will keep you updated and call you if we need your help, but for now Torchwood is fully capable of dealing with the situation. This is our city and we will protect it."

"Very well, Miss Smith. It appears that Captain Harkness picked well when he named you his second in command, congratulations."  
"Thank you. I'll call you in a few hours when we know more. Goodbye General."  
"Goodbye and good luck Miss Smith."  
Lucy sighed as she hung up and walked into the hub, logging into the system to find out exactly where the bombs had gone off and what damage had been caused.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"_Lucy, Gwen," _Tosh called. _"There's a rift alert from inside the hub. Same signal as earlier, when Jack disappeared."_

"_Do you think it could be him?" _Gwen asked, suddenly full of hope.

"_I can't check it out. I've got to get the Turnmill servers and get them back online before there's a meltdown."  
"_It's Grey." Lucy said harshly "I'm going to need some back up here, I don't really fancy facing the big bad on my own. I don't think he's going to come upstairs but I can't be certain."

"_I can't leave the police station." _There was some conversation on Gwen's end before she spoke again. _"Ok, Lucy I'll be there in five minutes."_

While Lucy waited for Gwen to appear John Heart walked into the hub.

"I need a bloody good reason not to kill you right now." Lucy said, keeping Cecil trained on his every movement.

"Because I had no choice..."  
"I'd like a better one, because I gave you a choice. I would have quite happily chopped your hand off and thrown it into the rift. You might not have liked it but you would have stopped being a walking bomb." Lucy pulled off the safety.

"On your knees." Gwen ordered, as she walked through the cog door, gun was point at John's back.

"Honestly, it's just sex, sex, sex with you people." He said turning round with his arms raised in surrender.

"NOW!" Lucy shouted. "Hands behind your head."  
"I'm going to need a really good reason not to shoot you within the next 20 seconds."  
"I'm still waiting for one."

"I know where Jack is."  
"You're lying." Gwen didn't believe him  
"You think you know but you're wrong." Lucy added. "He's not there."

"He's buried alive somewhere beneath the city. I came back to help you." John insisted. "I didn't need to."

"You bombed this city."

"Listen to me! You have to believe me, little Lucy's been right this whole time. I didn't have a choice. It's Grey, Jack's brother that's been doing all this. Controlling me."

"Lucy?" Gwen looked over at her boss who still her her gun trained on John and her eyes were blazing with fire. What John was saying was the same as what Lucy had said earlier, that it was Jack's brother calling the shots. What she didn't know was what she should do now.

"He placed a bomb on me."  
"I gave you a choice."  
"If I had taken you up on it he would have made me explode and done a lot more damage to this city than those bombs did. He molecularly bonded the detonator to my skin. I had to do what he wanted. But I came back to help. Look." He stood up and showed them the wrist strap that had been burnt into his arm. "He forced me to bury Jack and then he freed me. Told me that I could go anywhere I wanted. I could have run but I chose to come back here."  
"Why should I trust you?" Lucy asked. "And think about this seriously before you answer, because Jack might be annoyed that I shot you and grieve but I _will_ kill you if I don't like the answer."

"They were separated as children, Grey was abducted."  
"And he blames Jack for it. I know that. Answer the question."  
"When I found Grey he was chained to the ruins of a city in the Bedlam Outlands, surrounded by corpses. He was the only one left. The creatures had long since gone. I don't know how long he'd been there. He thought I was the rescuing hero. So, it took me too long to realise... he had learned terrible things watching those creatures. He let me trust him... ARGH." He yelled in pain as the bonding on the wrist that kept the detonator and wrist strap in place started to come undone. Lucy sighed and put the safety back on her gun and lowered it, nodding at Gwen to do the same. She needed John on their side anyway but hadn't wanted to make it easy for him.

"The molecules are unbinding. Just like he promised."  
"You are fully aware that he will know you've come back here." Lucy pointed out. "He'd be stupid not to have tracked you. And even if he didn't he's here to destroy all that Jack worked for so he'll be here too. In fact he came over earlier."

"I wish I knew where you were getting all your information from." John said, only slightly jokingly. "You seem to know everything before it happens. It's really quite sexy" He leered at her and she just raised an eyebrow and turned her back on him.

"I'm just good at my job and I already have a boyfriend. I might not kill you but I will use my knives to pull off the part of the body that you think with if you ever proposition me again. Might be more useful than rehab. They're throwing knives so not made for hacking away body parts but I'm sure I'll manage."

He laughed in pain as he pulled the wrist strap off.

"See free man. Apparently. I didn't have to come back here, I could have run."  
"Lucy does he know where Jack is?"

"He knows where he left him. Which is a different thing. But he thinks he's being useful and telling us the truth. So I suppose that's something."

There was a high pitch ringing in their ears, as a signal was sent to wake up the weevils around the city. It was sent on the same wavelength as the ear pieces they used so it drilled into their minds.

"There's weevils on the loose in the lower levels." Lucy said, running over to the CCTV. "They're out in the city too."  
"How did they get out?"  
"It's Grey." John answered. "He said he'd destroy Jack's life from the inside out."  
"Which is basically just repeating what I said earlier." Lucy smirked sarcastically. "Gwen I need you to make sure each officer is paired up with a member of the army, they've got to be here by now. I don't want them to even try to take down the weevils without guns."  
"But..."

"I know that normally we don't kill weevils, normally we just spray them, tag them and send them on their merry way back in the sewers. But tonight is not normal so I'm allowing lethal force. John, trust me when I say that your signal isn't working anymore. For now, Jack is lost. We'll get him back later. Tosh, Ianto?"  
"_Yeah, we're here. The streets are flooded with weevils. They came out of nowhere. We're not going to be able to get to the nuclear station."_

"_Ianto, leave it to me." _Owen said. "_I can get there."  
"How?"_

"_King of the Weevils, remember?"_

"No" Lucy wasn't quite yelling but the volume still surprised the rest of the team. "No, Owen I told you I don't want you anywhere near there. We don't know what it will do to you, you don't heal. Tosh, you can give them instructions over the phone."

"_The phone lines are down." _Tosh reminded her.

"_We'll hack the government satellites and boost the signal sending it directly to one of the computers or something, they've got to have back up. Or we could just continue to use the headsets" _She said trying to come up with a way, any way to make sure that Owen didn't go.

"_I've got to go." _The doctor said before she came up with another wild idea._ "Can you think of any other way? One that will actually work. Tosh can send me the instructions over the earpieces and I'm the only one who can get through the weevils. We've got to stop the plant going into meltdown."_

"I was hoping that Tosh and Ianto would get there before this happened." She sighed, her mind working as fast as possible to work out another solution. John's teleport wouldn't work and there was no way any of them could get there in time with the weevils roaming the streets. She sighed "Ok, ok. Owen you run and don't stop for anything. I'd better not be sending you to your death, not again. But for the record I'm not happy about this. You get out at the first possible moment."

"_I'll be fine." _Owen said trying to reassure her as he started to run. _"And I'm glad you said yes cause I would have done it anyway."_

"That's the only reason I agreed to it and you'd better be, or I will kill you myself. Tosh, Ianto, get over here as soon as possible. Gwen you help him run those scans, keeps him and you busy just in case I'm wrong. I am going to... going to work out a way to get us all out of here alive."  
"Good idea." Gwen laughed. "It's always a good part of the plan, not dying."  
"Yeah, I thought so too. Besides do you know how pissed I'd be if I spent my last night on earth on your sofa?" Lucy focussed her frustration at the situation and at the world in general into trying to sort everything out. She couldn't help but notice that things were still going the same as the episode and if it continued it would end in her friends dying. She solidly ignored the quiet voice at the back of her mind that said that things had to be this way and that she was sending her friend to his death, again, and that there was nothing she could do.

"Ok... so I can't get to my office or any of the weapons down there." Lucy said pacing while Gwen ran the scans, trying to find any sign of the tracer that John had left on Jack, her earlier plan didn't seem to be working so it was time to think of another one. "So we're stuck with what's in the hub. Which is a finite amount of weevil spray as well as a few guns and alien tech that we could use in a pinch... Gwen!"  
"You thought of something?"  
"Just that you should turn on the spray in the corridors, I don't know how much we have in there but anything that could slow the weevils down can only be useful. If possible rig up some weevil spray bombs." She looked around the hub trying to come up with anything to inspire her and her eyes rested on the corridor that lead to Myfwany's nest.

"Myfwany!" She ran up the stairs taking two at a time, in all the madness she'd forgotten about the team pet and wanted to make sure the dinosaur was ok. She didn't think Grey had managed to get up there but needed to check. The pterodactyl was at the back of her nest, next to the door which would open and release her to the world. "You need to leave..." Lucy said, the weevil wake up alarm had obviously scared her because she didn't even growl at Lucy as she walked forward not throwing any meat or chocolate. Lucy pressed the button to open the wall. "Come on girl. I don't want you to get hurt." She went back to the door and grabbed some of the meat that was in a bag on the outside, threw some out the open door but the dinosaur just looked as it flew past her.

"LUCY!" Gwen called up and Lucy sighed.

"Ok, you really need to go. I'll come and get you later I know you understand more than the others think." She petted her quickly, scratching behind the wing and passing some more meat over and pulling a chocolate bar out of her pocket. "I had saved this for when this is over. But it's yours if you leave..."

Myfwany's head turned to follow the chocolate and Lucy used her other hand that had been scratching to turn the tracker on around her neck so she would know where the pet had gone.  
"Come on girl... follow the chocolate, that's it. Just like every other woman on this planet, addicted to this stuff aren't you... come on..." The pterodactyl started to move towards the open wall and Lucy heard shots from downstairs, gently kicking their pet Myfwany's wings opened as she pushed herself out of the hub, Lucy threw the chocolate out and shut the wall again making sure that the dinosaur couldn't come back in until it was safe.

"You can come back later girl, promise, sorry."

**A/N: Here it is! Hope you enjoy, I love all of you and loved writing this episode too. **

**I'll see you again next week**

**Rea**


	67. Chapter 67 - Exit Wounds, Part 2

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

She ran down the stairs again as Ianto, Gwen and John started picking up the weevils and pulling them back to the cells.

"You've got a severe pest problem." John said mockingly. "I thought as the boss, you might want to do something about it."  
"Well I easily get rid of one by killing you."

"Is the violence and the threats really necessary?"

"Let me think about that... yes. Now get those weevils back in the cells and rig the doors with the strongest weevil spray we've got. It takes more than a bullet to stop them. Get out of the cells the second the weevils are inside. Make sure that you have guns and spray with you, just in case." She warned as Ianto, John and Gwen shut the door between the corridor to the cells and the central hub. "Tosh, I would send you with them but I don't want you to do any more damage to your shoulder and I need you up here with the computers. Do you need some of Owen's magical drugs?"

"I'm fine for now. There's no sign of the signal that John was talking about."

"Like I said, the signal's not running now. I know where Jack is but that's not the issue. We need to get out of the hub. Tosh, Load it onto your PDA."  
"But the others."  
"The others will be fine. But if we want to stay that way we need to leave. You CAN'T stay here!"

"_Tosh I need your help here, I have no clue what I'm doing." _Owen said over the comms.

"It's already hit meltdown, which is why I wanted you out of there. We can sort it remotely... The hub is under attack. Tosh, please for the love of all things holy and my entire chocolate supply which I will quite happily give to you and never eat again if you listen to me right now. We need to leave!"

"But Owen..."

"_Sounds serious if she's going to give up chocolate, Tosh." _Owen said teasingly, but understanding that Lucy wasn't joking. _"maybe you should go. I can work this out myself, you can use your PDA once you get to safety."_

Tosh looked back at Lucy and then at her computer longingly before nodding.

"Ok, ok. Owen do whatever you can for a couple of minutes. I won't be able to do much but I can help direct you from memory. You'll need to try and divert energy from somewhere else while rebooting the cooling system."

"_I have no idea how to do that but I'll try."_  
Lucy grabbed Tosh's arm and pulled the Japanese woman to the cog door and away from the computers, towards safety.

At the last minute as the cog door was rolling shut behind them, Tosh pulled herself away from Lucy's grasp and locked the door. There was no way Lucy could get in for at least 5 minutes.

"NO!" Lucy shouted hitting the window even though she knew it would make no difference. "NO TOSH I WAS GOING TO SAVE YOU PLEASE! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!"

"_I've got to save Owen and it'll be easier from in here."_

"OWEN. Tell her. Tell her to get out of there"

"_Tosh, maybe..."_

"_Owen don't you dare, without my help Turnmill will go into meltdown and you know it. So shut up and let me do my job."_

Lucy knew that she wasn't going to get through in time and could see Grey walking up the stairs.

"TOSH LOOK OUT." She and Owen both heard the gasp of pain as their friend was shot. Lucy didn't stay to watch it happen, she started to run. She still had time. She had to still have time, things were going to change. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"_Tosh, Tosh... speak to me. Lucy what's going on?"_

"I'm going up to the tourist office to remove the lockdown. Perks of being the boss is it shouldn't take long unless Tosh has tampered with it and not told me or Jack, I can override it."  
"_What's happened to Tosh?" _Owen asked and Lucy didn't answer, she didn't want to answer. _"Lucy?"_

"I'm going to save her Owen." She growled pausing to catch her breath at the top of the stairs before running down the corridor, the tourist office was in sight and she could only hope that Grey pulling out the cables to the computer wouldn't have interfered with the system too much to stop her logging in and overriding the manual lock down that Tosh initiated.

"_Save her from what?"  
"_From Grey. It wasn't supposed to get this far. DAMMIT I should have stayed in the hub and shot him myself instead of running away. I should've..."  
"_Never mind what you should've done. Fix it."_

"I'm trying."

"_I'm here." _Tosh said her voice filled with pain as she spoke, Lucy could hear banging all around the hub and knew it was Jack in the morgue getting Grey's attention.

"Tosh you're an idiot and I was trying to save your life. Yours _and_ Owen's." She muttered as she continued to reverse the lockdown.

"_Tosh!"_

"_I'm fine." _Tosh replied

"_Tosh, come on girl. Here we go, right you've done it Tosh. We've got power. You ok. What's going on?"  
"It's just a machine malfunction."_

"_I'm not sure I believe that, not after what Lucy was saying... Are you hurt?"  
"_Give me a couple of minutes..." Lucy mumbled running through the unlocking protocol as her retina was scanned and typed in her sister's birthday and middle name.

"_Who, me? It's fine just my arm. Something fell. Besides Lucy will be here soon."_

"Damn right I will be. Nearly finished here Tosh. I'm sorry for using brute force on your system."

"_That's ok." _Tosh laughed in pain "_I'm sorting out another painkiller. ARGH.. ok."_

"_Right let's do this thing."_

"_Owen... there's no way to stop the meltdown, it's too far gone."  
"Ok, ok, that is not good is it. Come on Tosh, there's got to be something, there's always something. Come on."_

"_The only option is, to vent the flow channels internally."_

"_Vent them where?"  
"The area you're in, is the containment building."_

Lucy couldn't listen to this. A couple of hours ago she had forced herself to watch 'Exit Wounds' all over again using it as a way to stop this happening, and she hadn't done it. She wasn't good enough. She pulled her ear piece out and did the last few steps in silence.

'LOCKDOWN REVERSED'. She was back in and ran.

As she sprinted down the steps, two at a time, three at a time, stumbling into the walls as she lost her balance she shoved the ear piece back in just in time to hear Owen shout and Tosh beg him to stop.

"_You're breaking my heart." _Tosh sobbed.

"NO!" Lucy missed the last few steps and didn't properly register the pain as she stumbled and hit the floor, rolling into the wall and standing back up as she started to run again, only half noticing the pain in her shoulder and the awkward position of her arm that meant it was probably dislocated. Even though she knew she was too late. Owen couldn't be saved. She had killed him again. "No, Tosh please..."  
"_Lucy?"_

"Yeah, yeah. I'm back. I couldn't listen... I swear Owen I tried...tried to fight..."  
"_Yeah, yeah I know. You can't save me but Tosh..."_

"Yeah..." She stood up and tried to get control of her emotion. "Yeah, I can still save Tosh. I'm sorry."

"_Yeah well you know me. Always the odd one out, dying for a second time."_

"_Don't... don't talk like that." _Tosh wept and Lucy stumbled down the last few steps, through the cog door and into the hub. She followed the trail of blood into the medbay where Tosh was leaning against the chair.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy ran over to where Tosh was lying on the floor of the medical bay, the Asian woman smiled at her although it was obvious she was in pain.

"I'm sorry Tosh" Lucy said cradling her friend, shoving her hand against the bullet wound trying to stop the endless flow of blood. "I'm sorry, I tried to stop it. I should have been better I should have saved you. Maybe if I hadn't let Owen die before... The Doctor... The Doctor said I could only save one, and it had to be Ianto. And then I couldn't do it. I changed my mind but it was too late. But I was going to do better this time."  
_"I'm sorry." _Owen said.

"It's my fault."  
"_Don't you go there Tosh. It wasn't your fault and it wasn't your either Lucy. These things just happen sometimes and you tried to stop it. You both tried to stop it. I'm really sorry. What's going to happen to me Tosh?"  
_"I can't." Tosh cried.

"_Please, ok. I need to know."_

"The containment chamber will be flooded with irradiated coolant."

"_Oh, my body will slowly decompose as I watch."_

"I should have been able to stop it."  
"That wasn't your job Tosh, it was mine." Lucy soothed her, not wanting Tosh to die thinking that she'd failed.

"_Shh, it's not your fault. Besides the pair of you have saved my back so many times in the past. Right from the moment I joined."_

"Second week. I had to cover for you. Pretend I was a medic, because you were hungover." Tosh smiled, remembering the hangover phone call from Owen asking if she could go to London instead of him.

"_Yeah, what was it? Space Pig. But hey you got to meet the Doctor."_

"Space pig mermaid."

"_We never did get that date. We sort of missed each other. It was my fault... I didn't... didn't notice until it was too late. I'm sorry."_

"Me too."

"_It's starting..."_

"Owen..."  
"_It's alright. Really Tosh, Lucy... it's alright. Oh god..."_

"Owen..."

Lucy could see the technician was struggling more and more with the pain as she was finding it harder and harder to respond and the tears were now falling thick and fast. But still Tosh found the strength to speak even if it was almost silent.

"Keep talking, I'm scared."

Lucy squeezed Tosh's hand again.

"I'm not going anywhere Tosh. I promise you. And neither are you. I'm going to save you. There must be something in Owen's endless supply of med stuff, something that I can use…" She tried to move but couldn't go too far because of putting pressure against the bullet wound. Besides Tosh just weakly pulled her back. "Tosh, I can… I can save you."

"I'm dying." Tosh said plainly

"No. I'm going to change things, I'm going to save you."

"Lucy…." That was all it took. Tosh simply said her name and it was filled with fear at the same time as managing to come across as an admonishment. Lucy stopped trying to find something to save her friend.

"I'm sorry I failed Tosh, but I am not going to let you go into the dark scared and alone." She said as she returned to her previous position "I'm going to be with you until the very end." She smiled at her friend through the tears and Tosh smiled back the fear in her eyes diminishing a bit. "I know I told you all about the space pig. But what about Dickens and the ghosts, or Shakespeare and the witches, or a murder mystery and Agatha Christie?"

Tosh shook her head and then immediately winced from the pain. Lucy gently picked Tosh up and moved her so she was leaning more comfortably against her chest, her hand still pressed against Tosh's bullet wound. She wanted to do anything for Tosh to make sure that she went to her death as peacefully as possible, the pain from her shoulder becoming more of a low constant burn but nothing that she bothered concerning herself with at that moment, not when Tosh was busy bleeding out in front of her.

'Thanks' the older woman mouthed.

"No problem, Toshiko. You're my sister in the same way that Owen was my brother and I am going to tell you a bedside story and then when you get tired, you'll simply fall asleep." She wiped the tears away from Tosh's eyes. "Nothing to be scared of and these stories are the best. In the Dickens' one Gwen's ancestor opens the rift for the first time, Shakespeare flirts with the Doctor and wrote 'shall I compare thee...' for Martha and the Agatha Christie one hasn't even happened yet. You'll be getting a sneak preview so I think we should start with that one."

Tosh gave a small nod and squeezed Lucy's hand back.

"So," Lucy started, "The Doctor and Donna – she was the one with the Doctor on Christmas Day with the Racnoss." She hated the fact that in a few weeks her, Ianto, Gwen and Jack would meet Donna but that Owen and Tosh never got the opportunity. She had tried to fight against time and lost. "They're just enjoying exploring the universe and all of time, by this point they've stopped Sontaruns from attacking Earth, gone to Pompeii, the planet of the ood and a stupid number of things. Well they found themselves at a garden party in the 1920s and of course they went to go have fun. Because why not, and once they'd crashed the party by pretending to have met the host before they discovered that Agatha Christie was the guest of honour. I've almost never seen the Doctor that excited before. Because, I mean, it's Agatha Christie one of the best-selling authors of all time. She's got… six books out by this point I think and she's just split up with her husband. Anyway not even five minutes later one of the maids runs into the party; there's been a murder in the library, with a candlestick."

Lucy could see Tosh's eyes light up at this thought, and she grinned down at her.

"Exactly, I think that was the opinion of everyone watching and the Doctor and Donna although Donna was a bit more suspicious I mean these things aren't actually meant to happen in real life. It's not like you find Enid Blyton having dinner with Noddy. So the Doctor teams up with Agatha and sends Donna off to go exploring by herself. The Doctor and Agatha find a piece of paper that says 'maiden' but nothing else. Donna however gets the butler to open a locked room, a room which had been locked for 40 years. It turned out to be a nursery and Donna moved to let out a trapped bumblebee out only this wasn't a normal bee. This was a 6 foot bee that decided chasing Donna was good fun. So Donna is chased by the bee and bumps into Agatha and the Doctor and then they have a Scooby doo moment while running round the house until the bee flies into a corridor of bedrooms, disappears and every guest from the party puts their head out of the room. Oh and in this time they'd been another death, a statue was pushed off the roof onto the house onto the head maid who died saying 'that poor little child...' So the mystery continues to grow and the Doctor decides to speed it up, he puts pepper in the soup – which is a natural pesticide." Tosh's eyes were starting to close and Lucy gently nudged her, it was only after she'd done so are there was a sharp stab of pain that she realised she'd used her bad arm.

"Stay with me Tosh" She wasn't able to stop her tears for any longer and they flowed freely down her checks. "You can't sleep before you've heard about the third murder and who the murderer is. I know what you're like. It'll bug you in the afterlife."

Lucy could see the effort Tosh put into opening her eyes again and the pain behind them but she was still able to give Lucy a small smile. Neither of them noticed the rest of the team coming up the stairs from the cells into the hub and standing watching down at the scene. Ianto moved closer to Lucy and Tosh than the others ready to go help Lucy the minute she needed him, they all knew that Lucy and Tosh wouldn't be doing nothing if there was a chance that they could save Owen. Jack stood between them and watched as time stole another one of his friends. There was nothing that he could do.

"There, much better. So the pepper in the soup, it's there to break the disguise on the bumblebee/wasp/thing. And it does, only the lights turned out at the same time and when they'd come back on the bee was human and Roger – the young master of the house – had been stabbed in the back. So Agatha calls a meeting in the house between everyone who is left alive. To try and work out whose the killer amongst them. You've got the lord and lady of the manner, he's in a wheelchair and she'd spent some years in Africa before she met him and came back with malaria, the up and coming socialite of the season, a priest, and of course the Doctor, Donna and Agatha. And Agatha uses that mind of hers, she can understand people like no one else, and just like Sherlock Holmes she can find the important in a mixture of information and put together the pieces in her head. So that's what she does, she works out that the socialite is really a thief but not a murderer. One down three to go. She then turns to the lord – who is an awesome guy – but he jumps the gun. And stands up out of the chair, begging to be told how Agatha had worked it out." She gave a small laugh, "Only Agatha was going to say he was free to go, he was completely innocent. He looked a bit ashamed and then sat down, turns out he didn't want to lose his wife and thought being in a wheelchair was the best way to make sure she didn't leave."

In the same way Lucy could see Tosh understand the choice she had been forced to make she could also see the life leave her friend's eyes. Tosh was smiling at the thought of this man jumping to his defence only to find nothing to defend against and his embarrassment at showing his secret and the love he had for his wife. The smile was still on her face but the eyes no longer showed any enjoyment at the story or even any fear at what was going to happen. They just looked empty and Lucy pulled Tosh tighter and cried into her hair.

Ianto appeared next to her and tried to pull her away from Tosh's body and into his arms instead but Lucy just held onto Tosh.

"I haven't finished... she needs to hear the end... Yan... I need to tell Tosh the end... it'll annoy her... I need to tell her the end."

Ianto looked up at Jack for help and Jack and Gwen joined them, they gently removed Tosh's body and Lucy grabbed hold of Ianto and held on as though he was the only thing keeping her attached to this world. They all stood like that for a few minutes before Lucy pushed herself out of Ianto's arms using her left hand and cradling her right arm against her chest.

"I need to... need call London and Archie to let them know what's happened here, as well as checking in on the police station. I should go and speak to James as well, my contact in the crisis centre I set up, see what I can do there... call UNIT... Um..." She stood up and looked at the rest of them, whilst refusing to look at Tosh's body. "I'll see if Martha is ok to come down on secondment for a while so can get ourselves set up and running again. I know she's leaving UNIT in three months to join London permanently but right now we need her more than they do. I'll probably need to speak to Mugumbo or Kate about it, but I think she likes me so hopefully she'll be ok. It might mean she has to join later but we can wait. Owen had a … well Owen set it up. Er... UNIT are almost certainly on the outskirts of Cardiff anyway even though I told them that we didn't want or need their help." Lucy dried her eyes, not noticing or realising that the hand she dried them in was still covered with Tosh's blood and it made her look worse as she now had more blood smeared across her face. She turned her back to the others as she began to leave the med bay, she forced herself to focus on the job in hand and not her dead friends. The easiest way to cope with emotions she didn't want was not to ignore them but to think about something else and make that the centre of your focus.

"Lucy..." Gwen said shocked at the second in commands reaction. "Tosh has just died"

Lucy span round.

"You think I don't know that. I knew it before you'd even dreamt of it happening. Before it was _even_ a nightmare. I held her and she died in my arms, and a couple of minutes before that we heard Owen die as he got locked into the containment field. We heard him rage against the dying of the light and then we heard him face it without fear. I know what happened today." She spat out before taking a breath and control over her emotions.

"But right now unfortunately – and as much as we want it to be otherwise - that's not what important. We've just had a major incursion, Cardiff was bombed and it needs to be tidied up. The job hasn't died or stopped or decided to give us a break, we need to keep going or at least have something in place so we can sort ourselves out. Tosh and Owen died for Torchwood. Died saving this city, our home. So I'm not going to make that death meaningless by ignoring Torchwood and what needs to be done. Once I've spoken to the right people, I'll be able to give us time off to deal with what's happened. We have to just continue doing our job and if you don't like it you know where the door is. You might even get 48 hours until Retcon rather than the normal 24 because of the current incident." With that she went up the last few steps and left the med bay, the cog door automatically rolled away and she walked into the lift. She didn't care or notice that she was covered in Tosh's blood, she just had to get out of the hub.

Away from the proof of her failure. She had fought and she had lost.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy allowed herself to get caught by the crowd that was around the bay, the people coming in and out of the millennium centre, although most people gave her a wide birth and she could only imagine what she looked like to them. Her face stained with tears and blood, she got to the front desk and the receptionist tried to push her to where the walking wounded were, thinking that she had been caught in the explosion.

"It's not my blood." Lucy mumbled. "I need to speak to James."  
"He's busy right now ma'am."  
"I know, he's my contact. I put him in charge of this whole operation, just tell him Lucy is here."

"Ok, well can you just sit down and rest for a moment while I see if he can come and speak to you?" The person on the desk seemed to simply be saying it to pacify her and but she didn't care.

"Can't rest, I've got a job to do, phone calls to make, people to organise..." She pulled her phone out as well as her ID "Can I use your office? They're confidential phone calls."  
"Are you really Torchwood?" The receptionist asked, he had heard rumours about the mysterious Torchwood team.

"Yeah, it's not all fun and games." She said wearily getting her battered ID out of her pocket as proof "Trust me. Just get James."  
"Sure..."

"The office?"

"Just this way." He gestured and Lucy walked round the desk and followed him into the staff office where James was busy.

"Lucy! Are you ok?" He said the second he noticed her and brought her over to the chair. It was a stupid question considering the way she looked, so she didn't bother answering it. Besides almost anything she could say in answer to it was covered by the official secrets act anyway.  
"Yeah. It's not my blood although my shoulder hurts like hell. Listen, let me make a few phone calls and then you can fill me in on what's happened. It's been one hell of a night... I need to ask you to leave though… confidential stuff and everything"

"Of course... I'll be just out there."  
"Thanks"

"General it's Torchwood." Lucy said, not letting the UNIT solider say anything first. "Listen, we've lost a couple of members of our team tonight. I don't want to hear you say anything apart from that you'll lend us Dr Martha Jones and that UNIT are available to help in the clean-up."  
"Of course. I'll speak to her commanding officer and see if they can spare Dr Jones. May I be the first to offer my apologies..."  
"I don't want to hear it General." Lucy cut him off, she didn't need to hear apologies for the loss of Tosh and Owen. Not yet, it was too soon. "Just make sure that the team you send are aware that this isn't permanent. It'll be three or four days at the most. We just need you to cover the city and be a physical presence. It is still our city and not yours. Understand?"

The door to the office was gently pushed open and Lucy wasn't surprised to see Ianto standing there.

"We will do all we can to help Miss Smith. I'll have my agents outside the city move in."  
"Good. Come to the millennium centre, we've got a crisis centre set up. You want to speak to James Aldershot, he's who I got running it. He'll be able to tell you what's needed, and we've got a police contact too who'll hopefully be here soon. As well as a medical official and someone from search and rescue."  
"They'll be there as soon as they can. Am I putting them under you?"

"Have the Captain call me, but I'm trusting that your men know how to do their job. Goodbye General." She hung up and sighed. "Ianto..."  
"You tried." He said not moving away from the door, knowing this was one of those moments where Lucy had to come to him.

"Yeah, I tried and I wasn't good enough. I couldn't save them. God, I'm sitting here covered in Tosh's blood. I couldn't save her Ianto." She pushed herself off the chair and stumbled into his arms. "I couldn't... I tried... but I just... I couldn't."

"I know." He held her close. "I know. Let's get your arm sorted and then you can have a shower and wash the blood off you before you pretend that everything is ok and save the city before you save yourself."  
"You know me too well." Lucy muttered allowing herself to be led out of the office and towards the med tent.

**A/N: I'M SORRY. I TRIED! I really really did, to the point that I actually started writing the next chapter with them alive and trying to work out what would happen in Children of Earth and in the other future plans I had with at least one of them alive or at least not dead again and I just couldn't do it...**

**Sorry, I know you all hate me but can you please leave a review anyway and I'll see you again next week**

**Rea**


	68. Chapter 68 - Exit Wounds, Coda

**Surprise! This is just a really short coda that needed its own update but wasn't worthy of a Friday chapter**

After watching the message that Tosh had left for all of them Lucy walked out of the hub in a daze. _'So you probably knew this was coming Lucy, and that's alright. I forgive you. In this job it's more of a blaze of glory than a whimper and that's alright too'_. She didn't make any conscious decision just kept walking until she ended up by the BBC studios, a place that in her world had the Doctor Who Experience right next door, the reason she had come to Cardiff in the first place.

Lucy leant on the railings and looked out at the water.

_'I forgive you'_

Tosh's words were ringing round her head.

_'It's alright'_

It wasn't alright though, because Lucy could have saved her. Could have saved one of the best friends she'd ever had. And she didn't. She had tried and failed, Tosh was still dead and Owen had died again. All because she failed in doing her job. Because when she fought against time, time fought back and won. She wished that she'd never asked the Doctor if saving them was possible, wished that she'd never known them, never watched Torchwood or Doctor Who, never come to Cardiff.

Someone leant against the rail next to her and Lucy didn't even need to look to know that it would be Ianto. They gazed out at the water together and after a few moments of silence he took her hand, she continued to not say anything. What was there to say? Expect that Tosh knew that Lucy was going to let her die, she remembered the look of forgiveness on her friends face when she worked it out. That it wasn't that Lucy didn't love her or wanted her to die just that her attempts to change things had failed. She wasn't good enough, that raging against the world was sometimes impossible. Part of her wished that Tosh knew the way she was going to save Ianto was by dying herself, as though that would somehow make everything better, she hadn't killed them so she and Ianto could have a long life together. But nothing would be better for a long time, because Owen and Tosh were both dead and this time there was no going back. They were gone.

"I'm not fine." Lucy said quietly, eventually breaking the silence and Ianto nodded.

"Me neither."

Lucy turned away from the sea and leant against the railings so she was watching the crowds, people walking to and from work or just enjoying the day in the rare Cardiff sunshine, they were still slightly scared and confused about what had happened but had started to return to their normal lives.

"We will be fine again though, eventually." Ianto said turning as well and pulling her into his side. "And these people are alive because Tosh and Owen didn't let Cardiff become a nuclear waste ground."  
"Yeah..." Lucy breathed. "Yan?"  
"Hmmm."  
"Can we go home?" She asked quietly, she hadn't stepped foot into their flat since the deaths, instead preferring to spend the time at Torchwood and throwing herself into her work, picking up paperwork from them and trying to do anything apart from stopping and letting it sink in.

"Yeah." He said with a small smile and a kiss to the top of her head. "We can go home." He gently pulled her hand and the two walked up the Bay, ignoring the Plass that hide their place of work beneath it and reminding themselves just why their friends had sacrificed their lives.


	69. Chapter 69 - Stolen Earth, Part 1

**Welcome to your normal weekly update, hope you enjoyed my small mid-week coda.**

"What the actual fuck?" Lucy asked as the hub moved underneath her. The whole world was shaking underneath her as she fell off the bed onto the floor of the recovery room where she had been trying to ignore the world. Half glad of the distraction but simultaneously angry that the world had decided that it wanted to intrude on her day of loneliness she got up and walked down to the main hub.

She hadn't wanted to be in work today, she would have been quite happy sleeping through the day or staying on the sofa watching trash TV but Ianto had argued - and vehemently told Jack - that she wasn't allowed to take the day off this year, due to the state she had got herself into on previous years on Becky's birthday. Privately Lucy was happy about this as she didn't want to be alone and it was another example of how Ianto was always looking out for her. However when she had turned up to work that morning and discovered that Jack had locked all the chocolate - even her secret stash - and alcohol in the shooting range and then he had physically removed Cecil and her knives, she wasn't happy. And said so, loudly.

"Last month, Tosh and Owen died." Jack had said when she had paused in her bitching, "If Ianto is worried enough about you that you shouldn't be allowed to have the day off; because he's worried about what you would do to yourself then I'm not taking any risks. Not after the month we've had. I don't care what's wrong, that's your business, but if today is a danger day then I'm definitely not taking any risks. I won't lose another member of my team."

Lucy had sagged against the nearest chair, which happened to be Tosh's and nodding in understanding.

"It's um... my sister's birthday and she... she's the only family I'll admit to having... it's just..." Jack put his hand on her shoulder and smiled in understanding. "I miss her" Lucy continued, "She was my world, Jack, my whole fucking world and suddenly... she doesn't exist or rather she does but I'm not there. I don't know if I can ever go back, what if she grows up thinking I ran away, that she wasn't good enough?"

"Not gonna happen." Jack smiled at her and Lucy knew that he thought he was telling the truth and she tried to believe him, she really did but the smile she returned was more like a grimace.

"I just want to go home."

"As in the flat you share with Ianto or the universe you came from?" Jack said sitting on the edge of Tosh's desk. Gwen walked in but after seeing that Jack was having a serious conversation with Lucy, immediately walked back out of the cog door and back up to the tourist office.

"Both, either, I don't know." His second in command said annoyed. "The flat is home but that universe has Becky and she's so important. I want this universe, Torchwood, you, Ianto, excitement but I want Becky too and..."

"And on her birthday you can't ignore it." Jack finished for her and Lucy nodded.

"How did you cope? When you lost Grey? On his birthday or on..."

"I shouted at a lot of people." Jack said slowly working out the best way the phrase it, "I knew it was my fault so I decided to be better and became a Time Agent, lost two years of my life, met Rose and the Doctor and the rest is history. But I was a kid when it happened, I never stopped holding onto the guilt though." Lucy sighed and curled into a ball on the chair.

"I just... I wish... I don't want to have to be normal today." Jack laughed

"Lucy, if there is one thing you are not - it's normal. Go and keep to yourself in the recovery rooms and watch TV or films. Catch up on some reading. Ianto's not saying you can't mourn your sister in your own way, he's just worried about you doing it alone."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What's going on?" Lucy asked as she joined the others carefully stepping over the mess on the floor, musing about how long it would take to tidy up. "Are you guys ok?"

"Ianto's lost some of his dignity but apart from that we're fine." Jack replied. "How about you?"

"Angry that the world has decided today is the day to make us earn our pay check. But yeah, I'm ok, not injured."

"I'm gonna take a look outside." Jack said running across the floor and out of the cog door

"Any chance that was just the rift playing up?" She asked, not expecting a positive answer but asking just in case.

"Unlikely. There was no sign of the rift playing up." Ianto crossed over to Tosh's desk and opened up the rift manipulator and reading devices. "With a wave that large there would have been... …Um, I don't want to worry anyone but the rift's gone."

"Gone?" It was Gwen who spoke first. "What do you mean it's gone?"

"I mean it's not there anymore. Look no more rift."

They joined him and stared at the screen which normally showed an in-depth analysis of how the rift was acting as well as a prediction of how it might act in the future. Instead the graph simply stopped, earlier that morning the rift was acting as normal with a few blips that normally meant the weevils would be more prone to acting up but nothing serious and then it suddenly stopped. The machines were still working and scanning but there was nothing for it to scan.

"How has the rift disappeared?"

"It can't have disappeared." Lucy replied blandly. "It's a gap in all of time and space, it can't have just moved from one spot to another. That is where the rift exists, it's where the rift has always existed and it's where it will continue to exist."

"Well it's not there."

"The rift hasn't moved." Lucy repeated. "It _can't_ have..."

"Well unless the machines are suddenly measuring a different bit of space." Gwen said mockingly and Lucy took that idea and ran with it suddenly realising what must have just happened.

"Ianto give me the CCTV of outside."

"Where?"

"Anywhere, just show me the sky outside, right now." She ordered and Ianto quickly and deftly brought up the footage which confirmed her suspicions.

"There are planets in the sky."

"Yeah." She agreed with Ianto's summery of the situation while Gwen just stared at it, trying to get her head around the concept. "The rift hasn't moved at all. We have."

"This is a little bit bigger than South Wales." He said dryly "And going to be hard to hide."

"I dunno. Humanity can be more than a bit thick. When Jack gets back see if we can get Martha on the phone, I'm sure she's busy and we may as well work together. I'll call Nick, London are not getting involved in this, so much for this being my day off."

"Why can't London get involved? Surely they can help us work out what's happened." Gwen asked.

"Because." Lucy replied. "Because I say so. Because this is too big for them. Because I don't want our people being killed. Getting information from the sky and stars is free game, we can learn what we can about the wider universe for future reference but I do not want us prodding too deep into this."

"This is what Torchwood is for!" Gwen argued. "For prodding too deep into these kind of situations and fixing it."

"Not this time." Lucy stood firm. "Once Jack realises whose behind this he'll agree with me."

"Why am I agreeing with you?" Jack asked as the cog door whirred and opened.

"Lucy doesn't think we should investigate." Gwen said immediately, "she thinks it's too dangerous."

"Jack, I have said I will stand with you and fight all types of monsters." Lucy said seriously. "But this, them?" She stopped talking and changed tact, not wanting to let Jack know about who had been behind it yet. "What if I can promise you that it'll get sorted? The Bad Wolf has returned."

"She's back?"

"I'm not happy about it but yeah." Lucy nodded. "And what's the only way I would know that?"

"The Doctor's involved." He reasoned out with a small smile, they could all see how he took this knowledge and ran with it, he seemed lighter and Lucy dreaded him finding out it was the Daleks. "And if he's involved he'll save the day."

"Well yeah, it's more about the most important woman in the universe than the Doctor this time. But it'll get fixed. I just don't want to risk our peoples lives when I know whose doing this and that it isn't needed."

"Ok." He nodded.

"But Jack..."

"Ok." He repeated to Gwen. "We'll leave London to just use it as research but that doesn't mean that we ignore it."

"Sounds good to me." Lucy agreed and pulled out her phone. "I'm surprised Nick or the royal family haven't called me yet, it's already been five minutes."

"They're probably trying to make sense of it before they call the boss." Ianto said wryly, "and when have you ever known the royal family to admit that they might be out of their depth?"

"I've never known the royal family to do anything." Lucy replied "But you'd think they'd know this is a job for Torchwood."

"I'm sure they do but as we already know that why waste a phone call and energy to tell us what we already know." Jack pointed out and Lucy shrugged. "I'll call and speak to William, I won't tell him we're pulling our people back though. Not sure he'd be as understanding, but Lizzie is a good sort she'd understand."

"It's never going to not be weird to hear you refer to the queen as Lizzie." Gwen said shaking her head.

"When you've bounced her on your knee as a little girl, it's hard to think of her as anything else." Jack said pulling his phone out. "Ianto and Gwen, call your family make sure they stay inside and stay safe. Gwen can you see what the media is saying and keep an eye on that for me? Ianto, let me know how we're staying alive, Lucy you call London. Have more active field agents put on royal protection in the bunker and then get the scientists to do whatever they want."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Someone's established an artificial atmospheric shell, keeping the air and holding in the heat." Jack summarised what Ianto had discovered as Gwen joined them.

"Whoever has done this wants the human race alive. That's a plus"

"And Lucy still won't tell us who they are. Knowing the Doctor saves the day is nice to know but knowing who he's facing and how we can help would be even better."

"Why did you tell us anyway?" Gwen asked. "You normally just tell us you can't change anything but admitting that the Doctor will save the day. That's big even for you. And who's this Bad Wolf that's returned?"

"And old friend of Jack's." Lucy only answered the second question and Gwen gave her a suspicious look but she ignored it.

"27 planets, including the earth." Ianto said pulling their attention back to the screen which showed the configuration of planets in the sky.

"Actually I think at least one of them is a moon."

"Really which one?"

"The lost moon of Poosh."

"Really, we've found Poosh's moon?" Jack was interested. "I always thought is was an urban legend. Like the Hall of the Fairy King of Jabiadu, or Atlantis."

"Can we get back on track?" Gwen was obviously annoyed by the tangent they were going on. "What's that in the middle? That's not a planet, or a moon." She pointed at a red dot on the screen that was exactly in the middle of the 27 heavenly bodies.

"Well whatever it is it's releasing spaceships." Ianto said as the screen showed more and more dots appearing.

"I'm guessing that the owners of those spaceships are the ones that moved us. Ianto, can you tell how many there are?"

"200 and counting." Ianto said after a brief pause where he played with the computer to redefine the image and to get more exact number of the exactly how many spaceships were in the sky.

"And heading towards earth." Lucy added "Jack I feel like this is a good reason to give me access to the shooting range, my guns and my knives again."

"You don't want us engaging with the enemy." Jack pointed out. "This going on doesn't stop today being a danger day. It just means it's easier for you to do something stupid."

"I'm not _that_ stupid." Lucy muttered and Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh come on, I wanted to be able to wallow in self pity and maybe alcohol and chocolate today. Not kill myself."

"They're coming into orbit." Gwen said trying to ignore the conversation between them and focus on the screen in front of her. Jack sighed and passed over Cecil and the two knives.

"Don't make me regret it." He warned, "Ianto would never forgive me."

"We're being invaded by creatures that have enough power to move the Earth and you're worried about Ianto not forgiving you for arming me?"

"You've told me that the Doctor gets us through it. Ianto has the power to withhold caffeine"

"There are at least 200 spaceships coming towards Earth." Lucy repeated "The city will no doubt be going mad and be full of looting. The Doctor might save the day but he's not going to help us tidy up."

"Which is why we'll need the caffeine."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"3000 miles and closing. But who are they?" Gwen looked at Lucy who just shook her head refusing to say. "Fat lot of good you are."

Before Lucy could retort Jack's phone went off, he quickly answered it and put it on loudspeaker so they could all talk.

"Martha Jones, voice of a nightingale. Tell me you put something in my drink."

"_No such luck. Have you heard from the Doctor?"_

"Not a word. Where are you?"

"_New York."_

"Nice for some."

"_I've been promoted. Lucy can you help?"_

"The Doctor's involved and he's going to need the help of the Children of Time" Lucy said

"_The Children of Time?"_

"You guys, his companions." She explained guesting at Jack and the phone. "Anyway what's the new job that takes you all the way to the Big Apple?"

"_Medical director on Project Indigo. Don't think I didn't notice the change of subject."_

"Have you got that thing working?" Jack asked.

"_Indigo's top secret. No one's supposed to know about it."_

"I met a solider in a bar. Long story."

"1500 miles and accelerating. They're almost here. Now would be a really good time for the Doctor to turn up."

"_I've been trying to contact him but nothing. It's like it's being blocked."_

"Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate." The speakers on the computer came to life blaring out the war message of the Daleks and Jack almost dropped the phone in horror, his gaze moving from the screen to Lucy who had a stony expression.

"No." Jack breathed. "Not them."

"Who are they?" Gwen asked.

"I_s that?" _They could hear Martha's fear over the phone as she listened to the same message as them.

"Oh no." The same word continued to repeat over the speakers into the hub filling its residents with fear even one of them didn't know why she was scared. Ianto had gone white and held Lucy tight against him, that one word reminding him of everything he had lost in Canary Wharf. Gwen was the only person who didn't know the danger they were facing.

"What is it? Who are they? Do you know them, Jack? Lucy? Who are they?"

Jack pulled Ianto and Gwen close towards him and Lucy struggled to keep her balance.

"I'm sorry." Jack whispered. "I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do. We're all dead."

"Who is it?"

"It's the Daleks Gwen." Ianto's voice was broken. "The Daleks have Earth." There was another shake underneath them as the Daleks entered the atmosphere.

"But... but we can beat them can't we. Lucy said the Doctor will save the day."

"Just because the Doctor can save the day doesn't mean that there isn't going to be collateral damage Gwen. The Daleks are the stuff of nightmares for a reason, there's nothing we can do against them."

"But we can't fight. Surely there must be people fighting."

"_Jack!" _Martha's voice came over the phone again pulling Jack back into the present and out of his fear.

"Matha it's the Daleks."

"_UNIT are going to fight, planet earth is at war and Daleks or no Daleks we're not going down without a fight."_

"Do what you need to do Martha." Lucy said seeing Jack was still not able to think past the fact that the Daleks were attacking. "Stay in contact and stay safe. Use your TARDIS key if you have to but remember Daleks are masters at killing Time Lords and working against their science."

"_The Doctor needs my help yeah? The Children of Time?"_

"Yeah." Lucy agreed.

"_Huh, I like that title. Looks like I have a job to do then. Over and out." _With that Martha hung up and Lucy twisted in Ianto's arms to look properly at both men.

"London might be hiding and under orders to not do anything but the Doctor'll need our help. We'll get through this Jack. Ianto? Ianto, I need to breathe." His grip got a bit looser around her but he still held on tight.

"The Daleks..." His voice was strangled and she could tell he was struggling to keep hold of himself.

"Gwen, Jack can you give us a moment?" Lucy asked and they both nodded. Jack letting go of him team and moving with Gwen towards his office. "And mute those speakers. We don't need to hear that any longer."

"Yan?"

"The Daleks Cariad. The Daleks."

"I know. I'm not going anywhere Ianto, I won't leave your eyesight if you don't want me too. But you'll need to let me go at some point. We're going to have to fight."

"You can't fight the Daleks, or the Cybermen. You can only hide."

"We'll do that too if needed. But I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to be converted into a Cyberman." She hated to remind him of what had happened to Lisa but knew that at that moment she needed to. "I need you to stay with me Yan. I love you Ianto."

"I love you too Caraid." He replied automatically "I'm... I'm ok."

"Is that my kind of ok?" Lucy asked with a small laugh glad he was coming back to himself as he once more loosened his grip and allowed her to move out of his arms. "Because I'm ok too. I also want some chocolate and I'm really quite angry that they've ruined Becky's birthday. And also annoyed that you were right in making me come into work this morning. Ready to get back to work?"

"Ready." He nodded and she could see his work mask slip back on as he tried to once more become that immaculate professional. It didn't quite work as the fear was still in his eyes but he was more in control of himself and that was enough for now.

"Kiss for luck?" She teased and his eyes wrinkled in laughter as he gave her a quick kiss and then walked over to the computer.

"Daleks seem to be heading everywhere but specifically towards the major populations by the look of it. I'm going to get us into UNIT."

"I'll call Nick again and remind them to stay undercover." She said quietly before shouting up at Gwen and Jack as she pulled out her phone to contact Torchwood London. "You can come down again now! Ianto's hacking UNIT so we're not just relying on Martha to let us know what's going on."

"_Boss, it's the Daleks._" Nick said as he picked up the phone. "_What do we do?_"

"Stay hidden." Lucy repeated her orders from earlier. "Turn off all our high tech and alien scanners and pray that they don't notice you."

"_But..."_

"It's the Daleks, UNIT are busy going to war and we're not ready for that yet. Your team may be growing and are good but we can't fight the Daleks. So I want you guys to hide in the safe rooms. If you can, get your families there too but stay off the main streets. London's a major city and Daleks are almost certainly going to be coming towards you. I can't guarantee anyone's safety on the streets let alone in the safe rooms. Understood?" There was no response so she repeated herself. "Is that understood?"

"_Yes ma'am." _Nick agreed with the order although he was clearly not happy with it.

"If you have something that can destroy Daleks then take it with you and point it at the door but if the Daleks find you you're dead. I'm sorry but that's the truth and that's why I didn't want you getting involved earlier."

"_You knew it was the Daleks?"_

"I knew that whoever did this had to be powerful and I didn't want us running in before we knew more. I mean it about staying hidden Nick. I know you're not happy with it but I don't want more members of Torchwood to die at the hands of these monsters. They already helped destroy Canary Wharf once. So please, don't decide today is the day you know better and that you guys are strong enough to rebel against our small team. You might well be bigger than us but we truly are doing what we can to keep everyone alive, as well as to help stop them. We're in contact with some of the Doctor's companions and hope to reach the Doctor soon as well."

"_You think he can stop this then?"_

"I think no matter how much the Daleks deny it they are scared of the Oncoming Storm and what he has done to them in the past. I also think they're right to be scared of him and if anyone can stop them the Doctor and Donna can."

"The Valiant's down!" Jack called over.

"I've got to go Nick." Lucy said quickly. "I can't order you to not fight the Daleks if that's what you really want to do but I can order you to go down to the safe room. If you do decide to fight and survive it then I won't punish you. Good luck."

"_Thank you ma'am. You too."_

She hung up and rushed over to join the others.

"Nick's not happy about staying hidden but I'm pretty sure he'll do it."

"We've lost the Valiant."

"I heard."

"Air force retreating in North Africa. Daleks landing in Japan." Ianto ran over to join them in Jack's office

"We've lost contact with the Prime Minister's plane." Gwen added.

"So basically we're up shit creek without a paddle."

"Martha! They're aiming towards New York." Jack picked up his phone and called Martha on speed dial.

"Martha get out of there"

"_I can't Jack, I've got a job to do."_

"They're targeting military bases and your next on the list. You can't help the Doctor if you get yourself killed." He lowered the phone in shock.

"Jack what's going on?" Lucy asked.

"The colonel is pulling her off the floor to use Project Indigio."

"What's Project Indigio?" Gwen asked.

"Attempt at a personal teleport from salvaged technology." Lucy replied. "Never been tested before."

"Martha please, it's not safe!" Jack shouted down the phone.

"_Bye Jack."_

"Martha don't do it! Don't!" He shouted but there was no response and he kicked the table in anger.

"They don't have coordinate or stabilisation."

"So where is she?" Gwen asked knowing that she didn't want to know the answer but that it had to be asked. "Lucy? Jack?"

"Scattered into atoms." Jack replied angrily. "Martha's down."

"No but... but Lucy you said she would be needed to help the Doctor, so she can't be down."

"The teleport is experimental at best, I don't know what the small changes could have done to it, the chances of survival are low."

"But she lives? In your stupid TV show she lives?"

"Yeah." Lucy sighed, "But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It was written to be Saturday evening family entertainment for the whole family. Killing off a major character is not something that the writers like doing."

"But everything's been the same so far."

"Not everything Gwen, I don't know everything. I couldn't save Tosh and Owen."

"Well what's the bloody point of you then?"

"Hey!" Ianto interrupted Gwen's rant before it properly started. "She's doing the best she can and has managed to give us some hope that Martha might have made it. That's more than we had before. Jack, I think we might have some stuff in the archives that can help us fight if needed."

"Gwen, the city streets are currently quiet. If you want Rhys to try and make a run for it and join us now is the time to do it. It might not mean anything and might not prevent his death but at least you'd be together." Lucy said quietly, Gwen nodded and moved away from them pulling her phone out to call her husband.

**A/N: Sorry I nearly missed Friday this week I've had plenty of things happen in RL.**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next part is even more fun cause the Doctor appears! And Lucy gets annoyed at Rose and 'meets' Sarah Jane.**

**See you again next week.**

**Rea**

**P.S PLEASE leave a review, they make me happy and I always reply.**


	70. Chapter 70 - Stolen Earth, Part 2

**Sorry I'm a day late!**

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"This is the Commander General of the United Nations. We surrender. I repeat Planet Earth surrenders." The message was transmitted out across all radio channels and they listened in silence. Gwen sitting on the sofa leaning against Rhys who had just joined them, Jack was leaning against the wall of the medical area holding his phone in case Martha got in contact, Lucy was curled in Tosh's chair and Ianto stumbled and dropped the tray full of mugs on the nearest surface.

"Humans picked for testing will follow Dalek instructions. The Daleks reign supreme" The Dalek voice responded also across all of the airwaves and the sky making sure that everyone heard them. "You will obey Dalek orders without question. You will obey your Dalek."

"So now what?" Rhys asked looking around the despondent team, Lucy just shrugged as she got up and joined Ianto. She joined him leaning against the wall and he wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head on his chest, happy just to listen to his steady breathing.

"Now we wait to die." Jack replied. "There's nothing we can do. It'll be better for you guys to at least attempt to fight back and get killed than live as a Dalek slave."

Static came across the speakers breaking the Dalek signal.

"What's going on?" Gwen asked seeing that something was coming across on the screens. She pushed herself out of Rhys' arms and walked over to see what was going on. "Someone's trying to get in touch."

"The whole world is crying out. Just leave it." Jack replied.

"_Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you! Now stand to attention, sir."_ Jack's head shot up as his name was called out and it was clear that the person on the other end could not only hear them but could see them too. Lucy grumbled as she was jostled against Ianto's chest as Ianto leant forward to see what was going on.

"Hang on I know that voice." Rhys muttered as he got up to join his wife at the screen, Jack quickly joining them.

"What?"

"Who is that?"

"It's Harriet Jones mate." Rhys replied.

"_Former Prime Minister."_ Harriet added lifting her passport and showing her ID to the screen.

"Yeah, I know who you are."

"Come on, looks like the day's not over." Ianto nudged her off him and stood up offering her his hand. Lucy rolled her eyes but allowed him to pull her to her feet.

"_Sarah Jane Smith, 13 Bannerman Road, are you there?"_

"Sarah Jane!" Lucy grinned starting to get a bit more lively again as the Children of Time started to fall into place as her and Ianto took their places at the screen as well.

"Who's Sarah Jane?" Gwen asked as Harriet started meddling with a few things to try and get them all talking to each other.

"Have you not read any of the files?" Lucy asked easily falling back into the old pattern of mocking the Welsh woman. "Sarah Jane worked in UNIT with the third Doctor and travelled with the fourth. She's an investigative journalist and her and her small team have been looking after London while Sarah keeps writing and investigating and using her writing to keep the muggles from looking too deeply into things."

"_Hadn't realised I was so well known in Cardiff."_ Sarah Jane's voice came over the speakers and Lucy couldn't stop herself from grinning and waving.

"Sorry, I'm a bit of a fangirl."

"You're telling me. We've had to sign your autograph book." Ianto muttered.

"_The fourth contact seems to be having trouble getting through. Let me just boost the signal." _The screen split into four so they could all see each other, Ianto deftly moved to the front and moved it so each video had it's own screen and then minimised the one that was showing them. Making good use of the many screens that Tosh had put at each workstation so that they could be used to monitor plenty of things at once. The fourth screen came to life and Martha's face appeared.

"YES!" Jack beamed in joy to see the dark skinned women looking at them and Gwen kissed her husband.

"Err... not that I'm not pleased for that but maybe you should do your job and not kiss me in front of strangers." Rhys said blushing, Lucy smirked and squeezed Ianto's hand as he rejoined her.

"Martha Jones! Where are you?"

"_I guess Project Indigo is more clever than we thought."_ Martha replied "_maybe it tapped into my consciousness because I left New York and ended up in the one place I wanted to be."_

"_You came home." _Francine said from the sidelines. "_At the end of the world you came back to me."_

"Good to see you Mrs Jones." Jack said.

"You too Captain." Francine replied leaning into shot briefly. "And it looks like you've got Public Enemies numbers 2 and 3 next to you too."

"Oh yeah, that's me. Public Enemy number 2." Lucy waved again. "Nice to meet you, unless you've already met me in which case nice to see you again."

"_I was on deck when the Master killed you. He made us watch."_

"Not much time for a hello then."

"A_ll of a sudden, its like the laptop turned itself on." _Martha said bringing the conversation back to what was happening.

"_It did, that was me." _Harriet Jones explained. "_Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."_

"_Yes, I know who you are."_

"_I thought it was about time we all met given the current crisis. Torchwood it sounds like you don't need an introduction but this is Sarah Jane Smith."_

"I've been following your work. Nice job with the Slitheen." Jack said and Lucy just waved again.

"It was the Blathereen, different family same planet. Wait a sec... no maybe it was just the Slitheen? Have the Blathereen happened yet?" She said without really thinking until Ianto pulled at her arm and gave her a 'Look' and she blushed "Sorry, that sounded creepy. Yeah, what Jack said, good to see you. And you too Luke."

"_Did she reel off a brief summary of your life?" _Martha asked with a small smile. "_She did that when I first met her too."_

"I'm trying to **not** come across as a creepy stalker." Lucy said pulling a face at Martha.

"_I'm not sure you managed that."_

"_For the record I haven't met the Blathereen." _Sarah Jane said.

"_Ahh, ok that's the next series then."_

"Lu..." Ianto groaned and she shrugged at him.

"What? It must be in the next series, yeah, come to think about it it was with Rani and you've not met her yet."

"_Can we focus on the matter in hand and not on one of your agents seemingly being able to tell the future Captain? Martha Jones is another former companion to the Doctor" _Harriet Jones ordered.

"I'm second in command of the whole bloody company thank you very much. Not just one of his agents. Sarah Jane I'll explain everything to you later." Lucy promised

"_If we survive this I'm looking forward to hearing it."_

"Yeah, well, Ianto's promised to make some birthday cake later. So we had better bloody survive this..."

"_How did you find me?" _Martha asked.

"_This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Subwave Network. A sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help contact the Doctor."_

"I suppose that explains why we haven't got the whole TARDIS network here then. I doubt Ian and Barbara have his number, and Jo's busy jetting round the world. Although I'm surprised the Brig isn't on here, Kate said the pair of them still talked."

"_What if the Daleks can hear us?"_

"_No, that's the beauty of the Subwave. It's undectable."_

"Said the iceburg to the Titanic."

"Are you going to continue to make stupid comments?" Gwen asked turning to face Lucy annoyed.

"Daleks in the sky and the end of the world is near, yeah, probably."

"_And you invented it?" _Sarah Jane asked, still holding Luke close to her.

"_I developed it, it was invented by the Mr Copper foundation."_

"So much for him living a quiet life. Honestly we helped set that man up, I helped Tosh forge him some paperwork and he goes and works for the other side. He promised his foundation would stay on small projects not on making future technology available now." Gwen glared at Lucy who just rolled her eyes at the Welshwoman and stuck out her tongue. "I dare you to say you weren't thinking that same thing, you helped teach him proper Earth history and not his Chinese whispers version"

"_I must say Miss Smith for someone who is supposedly in charge of one of the most important alien fighting organisations you do a remarkable job of acting like a child."_

"There's nothing 'supposed' about it Miss Jones." Lucy replied icily. "I _can_ act like an adult and make hard decisions if I need to, but there's nothing wrong with acting like a child. Children often see lots that adults cannot because they haven't stopped believing in all possibilities. Today was my day off, the only day a year that I actually care about and the Daleks have ruined it. So if I decide that I want to spend some of my last moments on this planet annoying Gwen then that's what I'll bloody do and I'd like to see you stop me."

"Calm down Lu." Ianto said quietly pulling her away from the screen so they could talk quietly.

"Fancy telling me what's up?" He asked and Lucy gave a harsh laugh and pulled one of her knives out to play with it instead of looking at him. As she finally spoke she was busy twisting it on her finger, not really caring that the sharp point was causing it to bleed.

"Becky really likes this two-part series finale. It's got the whole team in, Sarah Jane and Luke, us lot, Martha, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, even Harriet Jones. Figures doesn't it. One of her favourite episodes is happening on her birthday. Watching it on a screen I can enjoy it and pretend that I'm watching it with her, that she's just sitting on the other end of the sofa staying quiet because she hates the idea of talking over TV. But living it is hell and I'm angry that it's happening today and I'm angry that I'm not going to be able to enjoy it again and it's just another damn thing that's been taken from me." She threw the knife at the work board on the wall. Neither Jack or Gwen flinched but Rhys couldn't help himself "And it all works out and everyone gets their happy ending even Rose who threatened the whole of the multi-verse and caused this to happen in the first place by trying to get back to the Doctor and therefore weakening the walls between the worlds, and Becky could still be in that damn care home waiting for hers and wondering what the hell has happened to me. I'm just going to be another person who deserted her. She's only a kid Yan, she's going to grow up and what memories of me she'll have will be tainted by the fact that I disappeared on her. It's not even like they'll have a body, I would have just gone away for a weekend by myself for the first time ever and not come back. What else is she going to think? Her only family left will be Dad, what if they give her back to him?"

"Oh Cariad." Ianto pulled her close to him and she melted in his arms allowing him to anchor her to the world and what was happening. "They won't give her back to him and she'd never think that you just left her."

"Really?" Lucy didn't like how quiet and needy her voice was in that moment but Ianto didn't mention it.

"I promise. No child would get sent back to an abusive household. And Becky could never think you left her by choice, no one would ever think that about you. She's not going to forget you, she'll have photos and amazing memories of you looking after her and keeping her safe. She couldn't possible forget you." Lucy allowed herself to be held for a while before pulling back.

"Ready to go back to work?"

"Yeah." Lucy nodded unsure before thinking of something and suddenly becoming more certain. "If Rose has weakened the walls between all the universes so she could get back and inadvertently let the Daleks out. Then the wall that protects Becky from the Daleks could fall. I don't want them going anywhere near her even if it means I never get to see her again."

"Shall we go look after your little sister then?" Ianto asked knowing that Lucy would only ever be able to give one answer to that question. She didn't even bother saying anything and just walked back over to join the others, Rhys was hanging back not quite sure if he should be getting involved but not wanting to stay away from Gwen.

"Second in Command of Torchwood reporting for duty." She said to Jack giving him a joking salute. "Ready to save the day and the planet from Daleks and fix this mess that the Bad Wolf got us in and keep not only our universe safe from the Daleks and the monsters but all the others as well." Jack grinned at her.

"At ease. Welcome to the fight Lucy, you didn't miss much. Martha has a key thing but she won't tell us what it was and Harriet Jones refuses to let her use it."

"The Osterhagen Key." Lucy nodded. "Yeah, that's not a good idea, clever but stupid. For the record Harriet Jones today is not the day when the Doctor doesn't appear. He was here and then the Earth moved leaving him there. The TARDIS was fixed to a point in space and time and we weren't."

"_I really need to talk to your contact." _Sarah Jane said, ever the journalist.

"_Anyway, we need the Subwave to bring us all together. Combine forces, the Doctor's secret army."_

"Wait a minute. We boost the signal, that's it. We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself, using the power of the rift." Jack said excitedly.

"I hate to burst your bubble Captain but the rift isn't there. It's stuck in the same area of space that we normally occupy."

"But we've still got the manipulator and that should hold enough of an echo." Ianto added, "Plus there's no chance of releasing Abbadon now, we locked him inside the rift itself so we can open the manipulator fully and release what little bit of the rift it was holding."

"_And we've got Mr Smith. He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth." _Luke piped up "_He can get the whole world to call the same number all at the same time. Billions of phones calling out all at once."_

"Brilliant! Who's the kid?"

"_That's my son." _Sarah Jane said proudly.

"Excuse me, sorry." Ianto pushed his way forward. "Sorry, hello. Ianto Jones. Um... if we start transmitting this then this Subwave Network is going to become visible. I mean, to the Daleks."

"_Yes, and they'll trace it back to me. But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."_ The former Prime Minister replied and Jack saluted her for her bravery.

"Ma'am."

"_Thank you Captain. But there are people out there dying, on the streets, now enough of words. Let's begin." _She turned to start the transmission and Lucy mumbled to Ianto.

"I'm still not happy about her shooting a retreating party in the back though."

"Shhh." He replied glancing warily at the screens in case it had been heard by the others, but if she had heard it Harriet didn't respond.

The hub sprang into life and Rhys jumped back to the sofa out of the way of the team to let them get on with their job. Lucy pulled cables out and ran them across to the central tower of the rift manipulator.

"Grid power activated."

"All terminals coordinated."

"We're hacked into the National Grid, it'll leave Cardiff in a blackout which could draw some attention, but it's everything we've got."

"Tosh set up a limiter program." Ianto called over. "Connecting wire should be under your feet, loop it around the cable and plug it in first and then plug the national grid one in again.

"Is there anything that Tosh didn't do?" Lucy replied as she did as she was told. "All hail the Japanese Genius. If we survive this I'm sending her family an awful lot of money, boosting funding for the research team in London and setting up a couple of scholarships in her name"

"Rift manipulator ready to go. It's not going to be as powerful as usual but it'll do the job."

"_Connecting you to Mr Smith."_

"_All telephone networks combined."_

"_Sending you the number, now!"_

"_Opening Subwave Network to maximum."_

"_Mr Smith, make that call."_

"_And sending."_

The rift manipulator started to whir and grind as the supercomputer at Number 13 Bannerman Road called the Doctor using an echo of all the power and majesty of the rift and every single phone on the planet. The whole of the central tower lit up and started sending out pulses of bright blue energy out into the sky and the surrounding universe.

Wires started to burst and explode as they were overpowered with electricity and Rhys yelped and jumped in surprise. Lucy looked over at him having even forgotten he was there with how quiet he was being.

"I think we've got a fix." Jack yelled at the others who were all standing at different workstations viciously typing and trying to stay one jump ahead of the explosions and keep the rift running and sending that phone call.

"_Mr Smith now at 200%"_

"Harriet, a source has locked onto your location. They've found you." Gwen warned.

"_I know, I'm using the network to mask your transmission. Keep going."_

"Of course they won't spot us using the shiny blue light that we're sending into space." Lucy muttered as she ran to another computer. They could hear the sound of the Daleks in the background.

"_Captain, I'm transferring the Subwave network to Torchwood, you're in charge now. Miss Smith I might have misjudged you, tell the Doctor from me that he chose his companions well. It's been an honour."_

Lucy didn't have time to reply, she was too busy receiving the new information from the Subwave Network and trying to help keep it hidden for as long as possible. Although as she had pointed out the pulses of power would draw the Daleks attention, she could only hope that Tosh had managed to complete the time bubble to protect them and that it would work this far away from the rift. Jack paused for a moment in the chaos to watch Harriet's death.

The static on the fourth screen flickered back into life again and the Torchwood team were called back to where Jack was by his call.

"DOCTOR. Where the hell have you been? Doctor it's the Daleks!"

"Oh he's the same one you showed us Lucy. I thought he'd be different. A bit older. He's a bit nice isn't he?"

"Oi!" Rhys said and Gwen rolled her eyes at him.

"He's not that young." Ianto said sarcastically.

"_It's the Daleks, they're taking people to their spaceship..."_

"_It's not just Dalek Caan." _Martha tried to explain but with everyone talking at once no one could be fully understood.

"Ianto, look at the TARDIS and the round things!"

"Yes I can see."

"Planet Earth has surrendered"

"Yeah well Planet Earth is full of idiots. I bet Kate just lets him think he's in charge."

"_Sarah Jane! Who's that boy?"_

"_That's my son."_

"_Lucy Smith and Ianto Jones, good to meet you again. That must be Torchwood then. Who's that in the background."_

"That's my husband, Rhys." Gwen replied. "Gwen Cooper, nice to meet you."

"_Aren't they brilliant? Look at you all, you clever people."_

"You're making us sound like dogs who have learnt a new trick."

"_That's Martha, " _Donna said "_and who's he?"_ She pointed at the screen and it was clear she was pointing at Jack who puffed his chest.

"_Captain Jack, and don't, just don't." _Lucy laughed at the smirk on Jack's face.

"_It's like an outer space Facebook."_

"_Everyone except Rose."_

"Oh the special snowflake is listening don't worry. She just doesn't have a webcam to hand. Threaten the entire multi-verse, including my sister, and everyone still loves her. Honestly Mickey is better off I swear!"

"_Lucy!" _The Doctor scolded straight away before realising what she had just admitted. "_Hang on wait, what?"_

"Rose is at the Nobles', Donna's mum won't let Wilf have a WebCam so she's listening and watching she just can't join in the conversation. She's spent her time being jealous that Martha has your number and she doesn't because 'she was there first'. It's all her bloody fault Doctor. If she hadn't been trying to get to you she wouldn't have weakened... mmph." The rest of her rant had disappeared as Ianto put his hand in front of her mouth.

"Sorry Doctor," He explained. "She's not Rose's biggest fan and today isn't a great day anyway, even ignoring the Daleks. She's a big fan of you though Donna." As Lucy licked his hand he just turned to her. "Are you going to stop complaining about Rose and talking about the future?"

Lucy rolled her eyes and nodded so Ianto removed his hand.

"_For the record Doctor, you have weird friends" _Donna said to the Time Lord who shrugged.

"_They'd be no fun otherwise."_

The picture of the Doctor was interrupted and became static again.

"_You ok Lucy?"_ Martha asked and Lucy just shrugged in reply.

"Ask me again when we're not all about to die. I've got a whole rant by the way about why you were a better companion than Rose."  
_"Is this really the time?"_ Sarah Jane asked.

"Definitely not." Jack said swiftly, "Doctor are you still there?"  
"_There's another signal trying to get through. Hang on I'll just boost it. Rose?"_

"_You're voice is different and yet it's arrogance is unchanged." _Another voice appeared, one full of anger and just the voice was enough to change Sarah Jane's face from hope to one full of horror and fear. The screen burst into life twice over, the Doctor and Donna returning and Davros' face filled the bottom half of the screen and Lucy grabbed Ianto's hand as tightly as possible.

"_No, but you died." _Sarah Jane whispered and it was only just picked up on Mr Smith's microphones.

"Is that?" Jack asked, with only a vague idea of who it was he was looking at due to his knowledge of the Daleks.

"_It is only fitting that you should bear fitting to the resurrection of the Daleks and the triumph of Davros. Lord and creator of the Dalek race. Have you nothing to say?"_

"_But you were destroyed. In the very first year of the Time War at the Gates of Elysium. I watched your ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I tried to save you."  
_"_But it took one stronger than you." _The rest of the Subwave Network watched the conversation between the two old enemies in silence, Sarah Jane just holding onto Luke as tight as possible, trying to protect him.

"Sorry." Rhys asked quietly from the sidelines. "But what's going on? Who's that with the weird eye?"

"It's Davros." Jack replied not taking his eyes off the screen  
"Yeah, I got that. But who's Davros?"  
"A long time ago, and in the future, a planet called Skaro was at war." Lucy said trying to work out an easy way to explain everything as simply as possible but also just how screwed they were. "It was a war between the Thals and Kaleds, it had been going on for centuries and neither of them were winning, Davros was a Kaled scientist and a genius. A complete and utter genius who would have probably been revered throughout the galaxies if he hadn't been born during the war. He's also a genius of the completely mad and homicidal type."

She glanced at the screen where Davros was still gloating to the Doctor about how one of his Daleks had been able to break the time bubble and open the Time War

"Anyway, he came up with an idea to change the war, and genetically mutated the Kaleds, leaving out any emotion apart from hate and making sure that all of his creations all of the Daleks were geniuses as well, able to calculate billions of possibilities in a minute. Able to do anything needed to win the war and to defeat the Thals. But he was too clever, they look on anything that's not Dalek to be below them and not worthy, to need exterminating and he's not a Dalek. So they turned against him, finished destroy the Thals and what was left of Skaro and turned on the universe. The Time Lords - the Doctor's people - engaged them in a war. The Time War, they sent the Doctor back - with Sarah Jane and Dr Harry Sullivan- to stop the Daleks existing but it didn't work. The War is trapped in a time bubble, because if it hits real time for an instant it'll destroy the timelines and everything."  
"So it's not good then."  
"No, no Rhys it's not good." Ianto summarised, "These are Daleks from the height of the Time War and they have the Earth. I would say not good is an understatement"

"_I have my children Doctor." _Davros said as he left his jacket open so they could see the extent of the damage he had caused to himself to recreate the Daleks. "_What do you have now?"_

"_Everything we saw, everything we lost. I have just one thing to say to you… BYE!"_

With that the Doctor and Davros disappeared from the Subwave Network.

"So now what?" Rhys asked and it was Martha who replied.

"_You heard Davros. He's got his children, the Doctor has his Children of Time. Now we fight and do everything we can to help the Doctor."_

"_Martha's right." _Sarah Jane agreed, "_I know Davros, I was there when the Daleks were created, he'll focus on stopping the Doctor and knows that he'll do anything to help his friends. But this is bigger than us."_

"Errr, I don't want to worry anyone but it looks like the Daleks are heading this way." Rhys called over as he looked at the screens on one his wife's workstation.  
"We'll have to shut the Network down to keep you safe." Ianto said as Lucy ran over to see what Rhys had spotted.

"Yeah, they're definitely on to us. Sarah Jane, Luke, Francine, it was nice to meet you. Martha don't do anything stupid with that key. Ianto, shut down the network." Ianto looked over at Jack who nodded as he pulled his phone out. The Network was shut down and the screen went dark again although Lucy was more focused on the CCTV and the images that were tracking the Daleks.

"We've only got a couple of minutes. Maybe it wasn't a good idea for you to come here, Rhys. Looks like Torchwood is going to get you killed."  
"I'd prefer to die in here with Gwen than be at home and have no idea what was going on." He replied seriously. "But if you could stop us both dying that would be great."  
"I'll let the Daleks know. Captain do what you've got to do. We've got the fort here."

"Thank you. Martha what's the fourth number oscillating between in Project Indigo?..." He asked down the phone as Ianto grabbed Jack's coat and helped him put it on while Gwen held the large gun that had been retrieved from the ruins of Canary Wharf which had been adapted to work against the shell of a Dalek that he kept in his office. "It's the teleport basecode, it's all I need to get this thing working again. Thank you Martha Jones." He hung up. "Oscillating 4 and 9."

"Good luck." Rhys said, summing up the emotions for the others. "I'm almost glad I've met you Jack"

"Steady on, I'll come back."  
"Just go." Gwen prompted.

"I'm coming back."  
"Go!" And with a last look at all of them Jack activated the teleporter on his wrist strap and vanished from the hub. The ground beneath them shook as the Daleks attacked the water tower.

"Exterminate. Exterminate"  
"They're here." Gwen said grabbing Rhys's hand and pulling him in for a hug.

"Anyone else fancy going out with a bang?" Lucy asked as she pulled another stupidly large gun that was the same still and size as the one that Jack had just left with from one of the storage places in the floor. "I mean it won't stop them killing us but it might stop at least one dalek. And even if it doesn't, I'm not waiting for my death."

"Exterminate. Exterminate"  
"Like Owen and like Tosh." Gwen agreed, "You got any more of them?"  
"Nope, some of the things that might get through the casing are in the archives but these should do something." She opened the safe that was underneath the rift manipulator, using her hand print as the key. It was hard than expected to keep it steady enough to open but it clicked in time and she threw the small guns to both agents. "Laser guns. It's weakest point is the eye stalk so aim for that. As for you Rhys…"  
"I have no training." He said quickly "but I'm not going down without a fight either."  
"Here." She pulled Cecil out of her holster. "It'll probably do fuck all but Cecil deserves to fight as much as the rest of us, just don't ruin him for me."

"I love you Lucy." Ianto said as she walked back up to join them pulling the strap for the gun over her head and pumping it once.  
"I love you too Ianto. Thank you." She said seriously as the cog doors exploded open.

"Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate." The Dalek's war chant continued and they opened fire.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They continued firing for a couple of seconds before they noticed something was wrong. The couple of bullets from Cecil that Rhys had got off as well as the bursts of energy from Lucy and the two laser guns were suspended in mid air. The Daleks ray was lit up with energy, getting ready to fire, but nothing else was happening outside of the point where everything was suspended.

"What the hell?" Gwen asked as she lowered the gun, she tenderly stepped forward and poked one of the bullets which caused a visible bubble to appear, something that was separating them to the Dalek and the outside world.  
"I've got a funny feeling Tosh was never paid enough and that Torchwood wouldn't have been able to afford her if we paid her what she deserved." Lucy muttered putting the safety back on her weapon and letting go so it hung against her side.

"It's a Time Lock." Ianto explained, "the ultimate defence program. Never thought she finished it, but she did."  
"Last I heard about it it was all just a theory and lots of complex equations. Although how she managed to not only create a time lock but one that works even when we don't have the rift is remarkable."  
"Yeah well that was Tosh wasn't it. Quiet and remarkable."  
"You never had her take you shopping Gwen, trust me. That woman was nothing but quiet, a downright bully at times I swear."

"So what does this mean? What's a Time Bubble apart from the obvious?"  
"It means we're trapped in a different second to the rest of the world, Rhys. Nothing can get in and nothing can get out."  
"Not without unlocking that Dalek. It's all up to Jack and the Doctor."  
"So what do we do now?" He asked looking around the Torchwood team for answers and ideas.

"Who wants some coffee?"  
"Ianto it's like you read my mind." Gwen replied. "Rhys love give Cecil back to Lucy, you look stupid." Rhys gave Cecil back feeling glad to not have it on him anymore but slightly concerned that he no longer had a way to defend himself.

"I'm sorry." Rhys admitted when Ianto came back down with freshly prepared copy. "I'm still not exactly sure what's going on. I understand about the Daleks and Davros and the Doctor I think but... a time bubble? The Earth has moved, I want to know why!"  
"Lucy?" Gwen asked mimicking Ianto's raised eyebrow. "Want to tell us what's happening out there?" Lucy shrugged, she figured telling the truth wouldn't matter since they were physically unable to do anything to change it or even watch it happening.

"The whole story started a couple of years ago in London when a 19 year old Rose Tyler had to take the lottery money down in the shop she worked at..." She may as well start from the beginning of Rose's story and explain why the special snowflake broke the walls between worlds. She didn't need to go into depth and explain Jack's part in the adventures of how he gained his status as a Fixed Event. It wasn't as though they didn't have the time, time was the one thing that they had plenty of.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The console around them exploded as the Dalek outside of the Time Bubble. The team sprang back into life from where they had been playing card games to help pass the time.  
"There goes the time lock"

"And they've defeated the Daleks."  
"The bubble fell because there is no longer a threat." Ianto expanded.

"Or we just lucked out and it was a massive coincidence that they fell together while Rhys was busy destroying us at cards."

"Some of us are just naturally talented." Rhys said with a small smile and a shrug.

"I did warn you. My man might not save the world but he can hustle cards."

"_Torchwood hub, this is the Doctor are you receiving?"_

"Loud and clear." Gwen replied for all of them as they positioned themselves around the screen showing the Doctor grinning at them from inside the TARDIS, Rose standing next to him. "Is Jack there?"

"_Can't get rid of him. Jack, what's her name?"_

"_Gwen Cooper."_

"_Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"_

"Yes, all the way back to the 1800s. Why?" She replied awkwardly looking at the others for support.

"You look like the women who opened the rift originally. Ghosts and Charles Dickens." Lucy answered while Rose and the Doctor looked at each other knowingly.

"_Oh you spoil all my fun."_

"_You're the one who called me a Special Snowflake!" _Rose said accusingly.

"Well if you will threaten all of reality because you want to be with 'your man' then I think that's a fair enough accusation. Plus the jealously, and the selfishness..." Lucy shot back but caught sight of Ianto's reproachful face. "But the Daleks are gone so let's not argue."

"_No hang on! I want to know..."_

"_Rose," _The Doctor calmed her down. _"Now's not the time. I'll explain everything later. Anyway I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator and send all that power to me."_

"I feel like a broken record. We don't have the rift and after using the echo to beam a signal out to you and keep us safe in a Time Lock we must be running on empty."

"_You've been in a Time Lock? No wait, send me what you can and I'll use the TARDIS to bump it, it's just needed as a tether anyway"_

"Toshiko Sato was a genius of the highest order. But we'll send you what we've got. Ianto?"

"Doing it now Lucy, sir."

They held on tight to whatever they could that wasn't moving and yelled in delight and shock as the world was pulled back into it's rightful area of space. It took a couple of hours but with the help of the TARDIS and the Doctor the Earth was once more Sol 3 and the sun was high in the sky again as it should have been for a Saturday afternoon.

"Well this is going to be a hell of a clean up." Ianto said looking at the mess around them, not just the broken machines or the stains on the floor from the exploding dalek but the floor was covered in paper and other random bits and pieces.

"You'll need some good floor cleaner mate." Rhys laughed.

"We've got some in stock." Ianto replied. "I'll need to order more though."  
"Go home Rhys, you too Gwen." Lucy said with a laugh. "We'll start sorting out this mess and the hub tomorrow. Enjoy the celebrations, and go check on your family."

"What about you two?"  
"I'll call and check in with London, send a text to Jack and then I'm taking him home" Lucy replied. "He promised to make Becky a birthday cake and frankly it's my day off and I want to go back to bed."

Gwen laughed and surprised all of them by giving Lucy a hug.

"Err..." Lucy said flailing her arms before patting Gwen on the back. "This is..."  
"Odd." Gwen agreed as she pulled herself back. "Yeah, but I thought you needed it and we have just helped save the entire multi-verse from a reality bomb so I figure it can be put down to over excitement."

"Go home before you get excited again and declare us friends you mad Welshwoman." Lucy said with a laugh. Rhys pulled his wife away and shared a look with Ianto in desperation over their girlfriend and their weird relationship.

"Come on love, you heard her. Let's go home."

**Please review! They make me happy and prompt me to write (which is needed because FUN FACT - the chapter for two weeks time isn't even nearly finished)  
I love you all.**

**Rea**


	71. Chapter 71 - Talking to Rhiannon

Lucy stood awkwardly on the doorstep and rung the bell. She couldn't help feeling stupid, she had turned up at the house randomly many times with Ianto, but this was different. They had decided that was the best way to keep in contact with his family, every time the had to cancel an arranged date, they would turn up some point during the week. Rhiannon would often spend the first ten minutes asking them why they couldn't come this time before complaining that they worked too hard, it was a routine that they had all got used too surprisingly quickly considering how rarely Ianto spoke to his sister a few months ago, now they were meeting up every other week.

Today she was alone and this was serious and important. She didn't know what Rhiannon would say or do but was hoping that she would at least listen to her request.

She couldn't help but smile at the sound of shouting from inside for someone to open the door. After a minute or so, Johnny opened the door.

"Oh hi Lucy." He said ushering her in.

"Who is it?" Rhiannon shouted from the top of the stairs, "Mica, David just stop for 30 seconds"

"It's Lucy" Johnny shouted up before turning back to Lucy, "I'll just go stick the kettle on."

"Thanks Johnny" Lucy said with a small smile and a slight shrug, and she pushed her hands further into the baggy hoodie she was wearing. It felt odd wearing her old armour after such a long time but this kind of conversation fitted it. She wanted somewhere to hide in case it all went wrong.

Rhiannon and the kids came down the stairs, Mica and David running to give Lucy a hug, "Don't run down the stairs." Their mother said even though she knew they would ignore it.

"Hey you two." Lucy hugged them back, "Everything going well?"

"David pulled a page out of my colouring book." Mica pouted

"I was bored and wanted to see what you were doing. You wouldn't play with me." Her brother replied.

Lucy looked at David seriously with a small frown before looking back at Mica.

"Had you finished colouring it?"

"Yeah. I really liked it, it's from the Alice in Wonderland book Uncle Ianto got me for Christmas last year. I found it again and wanted to finish it. And I had made it all funny like you suggested. It had purple sky and blue grass but he ripped it. Because he's a stupid boy!"

"Why don't you go and get it, and I'll see if I can selotape it together." Mica nodded in agreement and ran back upstairs.

"I didn't mean to." David said quietly when Lucy and Rhiannon turned to look at him. "I just wanted to look, besides she wouldn't play with me."

"I know David." Rhiannon said sadly, "But you're still grounded for a week and you only have one hour of TV time a day for the next couple of days. And that includes games as well. You can read your new book."

"But maaam..."

"But nothing." Rhiannon said firmly,

"Tell you what David, once I've finished talking to your mum I'll play a game with you for that hour if want. I've still not had a chance to try and beat you at Super Mario Kart since you, Uncle Ianto and your dad got into that competition when you got it." Although Ianto and Johnny didn't have much in common, Ianto had been surprised to find that he enjoyed the healthy competition on David's X-box games. It had helped breach the gap between the two men and while they would never be friends they both respected each other.

David looked at his mum for permission and she gave a small nod, David hugged Lucy again.

"Thanks Aunty Lucy."

Lucy looked down on him bemused at the name but decided not to say anything.

"No problem kid." She nodded her head towards the lounge, "Go on, go read a book like your mum said."

At that point Mica came running back down the stairs with a picture clearly almost ripped in half, which was carefully placed in Lucy's hands; who made a point at looking at it carefully and inspecting it to make Mica laugh.

"Well I think I can fix this. But can you wait a bit? I need to talk to your mum about adult stuff."

"Sure." Mica said with a shrug

"Go join your brother in the lounge and do your homework." Rhiannon told her before leading Lucy into the kitchen and automatically making coffee.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was automatically serious again now the kids were neither in sight nor hearing distance with the door shut behind them.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Rhiannon asked as she passed over a mug. "Ianto annoying you?"

Lucy shook her head and tried to remember the speech she had prepared on the way over. Her silence worried Rhiannon even more. She might not know much about their job but she would have to be blind to not notice the different injuries the couple often had.

"Oh god, he's ok isn't he? That's why you're here by yourself he's in trouble."

"He's fine!" Lucy said quickly, cutting the Welsh woman off before she could start panicking. "He was busy complaining about the mess of the archives last I saw. We let our boss go down there to sort out things to do with... Tosh and Owen's deaths." It might have been a couple of months since their deaths but talking about it was hard work. They had fallen into a new routine just the four of them but that didn't mean that the gap wasn't noticeable. "He didn't leave things neatly." She gave a small laugh, "Normally that wouldn't be a problem. The whole place is a mess as Ianto's only been able to go back to the turn of the century so far. Only the bit Jack needed was from 2005 and you now can't find anything. Ianto's not happy."

"Sounds like my brother." Rhiannon agreed, "How are you holding up, with the two of them dead?"

"It's difficult." Lucy said with a shrug, automatically lying. Rhiannon just looked at her and she sighed and expanded a bit more, although she still lied. "It's very difficult. Work wise we're just about coping although at some point we are going to NEED to get another tech and doctor. I've got a couple of idea's but right now they aren't available and I'd like them in London, at least I want my doctor in London as I'm going to offer her the head of medical role. But yeah, work's keeping us busy and it's part of the job, we all knew it was a possibility when we went running into the bombings to try and sort it out. You'd think we'd be better at dealing with it now but I still turn to ask Tosh a question, or get surprised when Owen doesn't complain about something. I'm busy working on something that'll mean we can tell you more about what's going on and what the job actually entails."

She was about to continue into her prepared speech when she remembered what David had called her and her thoughts stumbled.

"But before we turn completely serious, quick question." She paused to check the other woman's reaction, once Rhiannon nodded Lucy gave her a quizzical look. "Aunty Lucy?" she asked as she started to drink her coffee

Rhiannon shrugged a bit defensive, "Yeah well you and Ianto are proper serious. He's visiting every couple of weeks now because of you. He's my brother again because of you, which in my mind makes you part of the family." She took a drink of her tea and started speaking again. "Ianto called you his universe on live TV. I don't think he's planning on letting you go any point soon. Besides you love my kids more than he does and he's related by blood, we didn't think you'd mind. Although I probably should have warned you."

"I don't mind." Lucy said quickly, "Where did the idea come from?"

"David's making a family tree for school and wanted to know where to put you and if he was allowed to. His teacher said he should ask me and I said I didn't think you would mind."

Lucy gave Rhiannon a proper smile.

"I can honestly say it's an honour. You've got great kids."

Rhiannon smiled back.

"Yeah, sometimes they're not the nicest or the best. But I wouldn't trade them for the world. You'll know what I mean one day."

Lucy's mind flashed to Becky and she knew exactly what Rhiannon meant, now that she had been completely accepted into this family she felt it was only fair to let them know everything they were taking on.

"I know what you mean already."

She pulled her wallet out of her pocket and thumbed the letter that was resting against it. This wasn't any part of the conversation she'd planned but she knew it was needed and if she didn't do it now Lucy wasn't sure if she ever would.

"I've got a younger sister, Becky and for 8 years she was as good as mine. Let's just say our parents weren't ideal and leave it at that." She pulled out the photo of her and Becky on the beach. She and Ianto had made sure that that all photos of Becky were removed the couple of times the Davis family came to visit simply because Lucy didn't want to have to explain it; although they had worked out what to say if they ever found out, and it appeared now was that time.

Rhiannon looked at the photo, curious. But she knew that it was best not to ask anything, Lucy would tell her when she was ready.

"That's my last photo of the two of us, and one is one of my favourites." She also pulled out the 8th birthday photo of Becky pulling a silly face at the camera with her birthday hat on askew and passed it over as well No matter how many times Lucy looked at this photo it made her smile. In that one moment the world had been perfect and they had been completely happy. "This is a better one of her. You can guess when it was taken."

Rhiannon grinned, "She's beautiful, looks like a happy child."

"She was." Lucy agreed, "Unless I was telling her she had to go to bed, or get up in the morning, or eat the rest of her dinner, or get into the bath, or get _out_ of the bath." She gave a small laugh, "Or to get off the swings at the park. Or do her homework, or stop reading her book and do something else... But she was brilliant, life was difficult but I wouldn't have changed a second of it." She laughed again but this one was slightly bitter, "Until one day. We were on the way back from the park. I needed to get back to cook dinner to have it ready for when Dad got back from work and we both had work to be getting on with. I had just started an online degree, I had wanted one for a while and I wanted to show her that you need to work hard in life. So I was working in a shop during the day while she was at school and working on a degree at night as well as, well as well as everything else. We had found something for us that worked and no one knew that anything was wrong, we were left alone and I didn't mind. I remember being annoyed originally. I was just a kid what was I supposed to know or do with a baby? But she would smile at me and then suddenly I couldn't be annoyed again, so life was good. We used to sit at the kitchen table together both doing our homework. Becky decided that if I had to check over hers she would have to check mine, she was a good reader for her age but barely understood what half the words in my English Lit. essays were let alone what it meant. But she would solidly sit there and read it aloud, asking questions about every word she didn't understand in the same way I would make sure she understood her homework and that she could spell all her words of the week properly..." She shook her head to stop herself from falling into memories and not saying what had been agreed would be this world's version of the truth. She took a big gulp of the now cooling coffee so she could get her bearings straight before speaking again.

"Anyway that day we had had the customary disagreement about when she needed to get off the swings and when we needed to leave the park. So we were rushing back, I was annoyed with myself. I knew we had stuff to do and that I had let her play for too long but she used to love those swings so much and it was hot and I was dozing a bit and had just finished the book I needed to read – Great Gatsby. Becky was flagging a bit behind me, as she always did when we left the park, as though she would be able to get me to turn round. We only got as far as the swimming pool car park which was right next to the park and after that it was only 10 minutes until we got home. I shouted at Becky to hurry up, I heard her saying something behind me but I couldn't hear her properly, a swimming lesson had just let out and there were cars everywhere."

She finished the coffee in one last gulp refusing to look at Rhiannon's horrified face and instead at the two photos of her sister that sat on the table, she gently traced her fingers over Becky's face.

"It was my fault, I should have been holding her hand, but we'd done it so many times and I had an essay due in a few days which I was getting stressed about, I'd only just finished the book after all, and... and these are just excuses, it doesn't change the fact that I should have been holding her hand. But I turned around to hear what she was saying, and to wait for her so we could cross the road together, when a car appeared from nowhere. It was stupidly quick – the dad had had a few too much to drink when he came to pick his son up the police said, he'd swerved to miss another child and ran over the curb onto the pavement... And Becky went flying. I swear my life stopped. I could see what was going to happen and I started to run but of course I could never have been quick enough even though I was only a maximum of five metres ahead of her." She winced "There was a scream, I still don't know if that was me or anyone else. God she was so scared in those couple of seconds, I could see it in her eyes but she still trusted me to save her. And the thud. Oh hell that thud, I've never heard anything so loud and so quiet before. But that could be because I couldn't hear it over the rush of blood and yet it was the only thing I could hear."

Lucy angrily brushed the tears away and moved the photo's back into her wallet before finally looking up at her boyfriend's sister. Rhiannon had tears streaming down her face and Lucy felt like it was her job to cheer her up, so she smiled at the woman who had accepted her into her family with open arms.

"She would love David and Mica. She'd be out in the garden playing football with David and then coming inside with a huge grin on her face and then sit and draw with Mica. She would have taken on the role of older cousin with pride and drag us round here at every possible opportunity. When Becky got an idea in her head she would see it through, I've never met a more stubborn kid and I can promise you that she would have decided to adopt your two kids and make herself their big sister."

Rhiannon nodded and tried to dry her eyes.

"I wish I could have met her."

"Me too." Lucy agreed, "I'll make you some more tea while you pull yourself together. This wasn't what I wanted to talk about today, but it didn't feel right not telling you. Not now you've got the kids calling me Aunty. If you've adopted me into your family, then Becky's part of it too. She's just... not here."

Lucy pottered around the kitchen making herself another coffee as well as a tea for Rhiannon. She wished that she could tell her friend that against all the odds Becky had survived. That after spending five weeks in a coma she had woken up and that she was now a happy child. Granted she was living in a care home and was desperate to live with Lucy again properly, but she was alive.

Only she was living in a parallel world, alive but completely unreachable. Lucy sighed, as much as she knew Becky was alive, her sister may as well have been dead for all the difference it made. There was no chance of her ever seeing her again.

She put the tea in front of Rhiannon whose tears had slowed down as she sat back down at the table.

"That wasn't the conversation I'd planned on having today."

"When were you going to tell me?" The welsh woman asked. Lucy shrugged in response.

"I don't know, never, maybe? We've got some photos up in the flat but we've take them down when you've come round. It's just easier, you're never going to forget that I as good as lost a child. Becky was mine in every way that mattered and that car took it all away from us. It changes the way you think about a person. You pity them, and I don't want or need anyone's pity."

She stood up uncomfortable about where this conversation was heading if it continued down this train of thought.

"Listen, you go hug your kids. I'll just go."

Rhiannon stood up as well.

"Stay, you've still not said why you came around originally. And I'm not going to pity you. It means I respect your more and I feel sorry for you, of course I do, but that doesn't mean that I pity you. Would you mind if I told the kids that they had a cousin? It means you could keep the photos up next time we come round."

Lucy shut her eyes and took a deep breath, taking those few seconds to shove down all the emotions that were threatening to bubble to the surface. Ianto was the only other person in this universe that she'd told the whole story to. It had taken a lot longer because the story that time was broken by tears and him promising her things were going to be ok and that she didn't need to say anything if she didn't want to. She had also been able to tell him everything that happened while Becky was in the coma and how she felt when she was told on the same day that Becky would live but that she was going to be taken straight into care. When she opened her eyes again she smiled, it appeared Rhiannon and Ianto were more similar than either of them thought.

"Sure. As long as you make it known that I didn't have a kid when I was 14."

"Deal" Rhiannon smiled at her; although Lucy could see her filing away the information for later probably for a conversation with her husband, followed by one with her brother and then finally her children. "Fancy telling me why you came here to begin with?"

"It's a serious conversation," Lucy said still standing, ready to walk out any second. "I'm not sure if it fits, going after what I just told you."

"I may as well have them all in one day. You looked scared when you came in, as though you had to work up the courage to come here. As you are one of the bravest people I know I want to know why and besides, this means you can't back out."

"I'm not brave" Lucy shrugged the compliment aside.

"You share a bed with my brother, and he fidgets in the night. He used to kick me when we where children and had to share a bed on holiday. If that's not brave I don't know what is." Rhiannon smiled as Lucy sat back down. They both knew that she was purposefully not mentioning Lucy's job. Rhiannon might not have known where in the government, or how high up in the government her brother and Lucy worked. But she knew enough.

"So?" Rhiannon prompted Lucy

Lucy took a deep breath.

"I need you to give Ianto a letter for me."

"Why can't you just give it to him yourself?" She asked confused about what was being asked of her. "Oh God, you're not leaving are you?"

Lucy shook her head quickly.

"No. I have no intention of leaving any time soon. It's just," She took a sip of her freshly brewed coffee. "As you know it's a dangerous job that we do. And yes, with the offices I'm planning in London it'll make it 'safer' and theoretically Ianto and I could move to positions there easily. In fact it would be better for my role, and the same for Ianto. He could be head of the archives – which he technically already is. But if that's all he is he could do it in a safer position with no difficulty."

"So why don't you?" Rhiannon asked, as she worked out where this conversation was going. She understood why Lucy had look nervous earlier and why she had suggested holding off having this conversation after the one about Becky and what had happened to her. "If it would be better for you and not difficult for Ianto."

"Because we've been on the front lines for so long that to move off it into a stuffy office block and working 9-5 wouldn't be feasible. We've talked about it, of course we have. But for Ianto moving onto the front line from the archives was a big deal, it meant the team trusted him and we love it. We're making a difference, and we could do that from an office but that would mean sending other people out into danger. Risking other people's lives is not something that sits happily with either of us. I don't want to be the one running the damn thing but asking people to do stuff that I wouldn't do myself. I refuse to be that person, every member of staff needs to know that although I may ask them to do dangerous things that I would do it as well. In our line of work there is no other way to be respected by field agents." She sighed, "I suppose you could say we've become addicted to it. The job gets under your skin and you can never properly leave it or it can never properly leave you."

"I've seen it in Ianto," Rhiannon agreed sadly, "He's thriving now, I'm not sure how much of that is you or the job. But when he first moved to Cardiff he hated the job; hated not being noticed or not having any proper friends. And then you come into the picture and things start changing."

"All I did was prompt people to say please or thank you and to admit he did a hell of a lot more than simply make coffee. Trust me our office would not be working anywhere near as efficiently as it does without him."

She pulled a letter out of her pocket which simply had 'Ianto' written on the front and 'sorry' on the back.

"Because of everything I just said, this is for when the worst happens."

Rhiannon quickly picked up on her choice of words.

"When?" She asked harshly. Lucy just gave a small nod and sipped her coffee some more.

"When." She agreed as though she was agreeing that it was raining outside. She had come to terms with her death long enough ago now that it didn't scare her, or at least that was she had convinced herself. "I know it's not what you wanted to hear but it's the truth."

"How much danger is my brother in?" Rhiannon was scared to ask but she knew that she needed the answer to her question. "You've just admitted it's a dangerous job and that you're going to die. Do I have to mentally prepare for his death as well?"

Lucy shook her head.

"He's going to be the safest person in our office, because I won't let anything happen to him. I refuse to let anything happen to him." It took a couple of seconds but Lucy saw that minute Rhiannon understood, it was written all over her face, the relief and the worry.

"You're going to die instead of him" she breathed.

"That's the plan," Lucy said firmly but quietly "better me than him. He's got family and I don't."

"You've got us." Rhiannon said choking on the words, tears were once again starting to get the better of her.

"It's not the same though is it?" Lucy asked, "If I die Ianto has you to fall back on, and with this letter from me he'll struggle but he'll be fine. If he dies I have nothing to keep me sane, I'll throw myself into my work and every take every risk. I'd be dead within the month. You'd struggle keeping me sane because you'd be mourning your brother. I've lost my world once before... when that car" She took a deep breath. "When that car hit Becky I honestly don't know how I kept going, I was living in a state of limbo and it took a _very _long time to pull myself out. If anything happens to Ianto... I can't go to that place again because I won't come out of it. If I hadn't come here, if I hadn't come to Cardiff on a weekend to get away from everything..." She trailed off not wanting to say that she would be back in that no place, back being Becky's sister but without Becky. With minimal motivation to keep going, it had reached the point where the social would only let her see Becky if she pulled herself together. It was a cruel reward scheme but Lucy would do anything for her sister so she forced herself to get up every morning and do something.

"The kids would be devastated, you're family now Lucy whether you like it or not. You'd have us" Rhiannon argued

"I love the fact you've accepted me into your family" Lucy said calmly and kindly, "but that doesn't mean it's the same thing. I'm the first one to argue that blood isn't what important in family. But in this case it would make more of an impact if Ianto was to die because they've known him for longer."

"They've only got to know their uncle properly since he met you. He doesn't just give them money anymore David cares about school work and has loved doing his space project at school because his Uncle can help him." Rhiannon argued although she knew that Lucy was probably right. She hated that the woman she thought of as her sister-in-law was calmly talking about her death.

"It's still not the same and you know it." Lucy said with a note of finality in her voice, "I love your family and I'm not looking forward to the prospect of dying but I've come to terms with it. The fact that I am going to die, is fine. Honestly it is. If I die on the job I'd be happy."

Rhiannon gave her a look that clearly said she didn't believe her and Lucy laughed.

"I mean it Rhiannon. If I die on the job it means I've died doing something important and making a difference. It'll be for a good reason. And if not well... well... Ianto has my full permission to go find fate and shout at her."

Rhiannon couldn't help but smile at the image of her brother shouting at fate.

"Sounds like something he'd do."

"Of course he would. He's Welsh and has a temper even though he keeps it mostly under wraps. But I promise that soon you'll understand, or at least you'll understand more about the job. I've just got permission to write a second official secrets act for close family to sign. So I'll start writing that within the next couple of weeks, I need to arrange different meeting with heads of certain – other – departments of the government, to see if they want to be a part of it. If not it'll just be for us, but it _is_ needed"

Rhiannon gaped at her understanding the implications of what was being said.

"So not only are you high enough in the government you've signed the official secrets act, you're also high up enough that you can rewrite it so families can find out more."

"Pretty much, it also means amending the original so I'm not sure what other departments will do but we're fairly separate. Like I said earlier, I'm nearly done so as long as you and Johnny are happy to sign it we'll be able to tell you more about what's going on and why we have to cancel at short notice."

"How important are you?" Rhiannon asked and Lucy just shrugged.

"Fairly. But right now that's not the point. I need you to deliver this letter for me Rhiannon. Please!"

Rhiannon finally looked at the letter that was sitting on the table and then back up at Lucy's pleading face before nodding slowly.

"Ok." She sighed and spoke again, although this time she sounded more certain. "Ok, I'll give it to him."

"Thank you." Lucy breathed in relief, she had come to terms with her death but was worried for Ianto and what would happen after.

"But you're not allowed to go looking for death."

"I won't." She agreed, "I'm not leaving Ianto any earlier than needed." Rhiannon stood up and put the letter in the back of the top cupboard.

"That way the kids can't reach it."

"Thank you." Lucy said standing up, "I'm sorry I had to ask it of you. But this way I know he'll get it and he didn't have a chance of finding it before it was needed." Rhiannon pulled Lucy into a hug.

"I don't want you dying on me. So you're not allowed to do it unless there is no other option available. Promise?"

"Promise." Lucy agreed as she pulled out of the hug. "I'll go talk and play with the kids like I said I would. I've got just under an hour before I need to go back home."

"Where does Ianto think you are?" The welsh woman asked as she dried her tears.

"I've been in London" Lucy said with a shrug, "He thinks I'm currently on my way back. But the meeting finished early and as much as I wanted to stay and talk to Will as friends instead of in a professional capacity. I decided that now was the best time to come and talk to you about this, as I'd finally worked up the courage."

"Do I want to know what the meeting was about?" Rhiannon asked, not sure if she was right in her guess about who the meeting was with. "And _can_ I know what the meeting was about?"

"The new official secret act." Lucy said with a shrug. "They'd said I could look into it before so it was mainly about working out the logistics of such a thing and whose allowed to be told, things like that. Like I said, it's nearly done so I needed it to be checked over."

"I'm starting to think you were understating it when you said you were 'fairly' high up in the government."

"Why?" Lucy asked with a cheeky grin, "What could I have possibly said to make you think that?" Rhiannon smiled at her.

"Honestly placing Mario kart with David will be a good thing for you. Deflate that head of yours." She moved to a drawer and pulled out some selotape, "that's for Mica's picture."

"Thanks Rhi." Lucy said taking it from her, "I'm honestly really sorry I had to ask this of you and Johnny."

"It's not a problem. Family helps family." Rhiannon said with a sad smile, "Go on, go play with the kids. Can you send Johnny in here? I could do with a hug from my husband."

"No problem." Lucy said as she left the room

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Hey David, are you ready to be thrashed at Mario Kart?" Lucy said with a grin as she entered the lounge.

"I'm going to win" David retorted and Lucy laughed

"Probably, but let me fix Mica's picture first." She looked up at Johnny who had been helping his daughter with her homework, "Rhiannon wants you in the kitchen."

He nodded and quickly left to go see what his wife wanted, and Lucy sat next to Mica and very carefully taped the picture back together.

"Thanks Aunty Lucy" Mica said with a grin, before turning serious. "You don't mind us calling you that do you?"

"Of course I don't" Lucy said pulling her into a hug causing Mica to grin and to stop being serious in an instant, in the way only a 8 year old could.

"Good because I like having an Aunty."

"I like being one." Lucy replied, "Now I promised to play with David but I've never played Mario Kart before so I'm going to need you to help me, ok?"

Mica nodded.

"Ok. Can we be Princess Peach?"

"Sure. Unless David wants it?" She turned to look at the 10 year old who pulled a face.

"Bluegh. No I want to be Mario. I don't want to be a girl, girls are no good at driving and boy things."

Lucy raised her eyebrows at him and gave him a 'look'.

"Really. I'm quite good at those things. I do lots of running after people at work and driving as well. I'm better at driving than your uncle."

"Yeah but you're different, you're cool. Most girls aren't like you." David said slightly defensive but also saying it as though it was the most obvious thing ever.

"I'm going to be" Mica said decisively. "I want to be just like you when I grow up Aunty Lucy."

"Why do you want to be me when you can be you?" Lucy said with a smile. "No one else can be like Mica Davis. There are lots of other Lucy Smith's in the world but only one of you."

"There's a Lucy Smith in my class." David agreed. "But she's nothing like you. She like pink stuff and doesn't like getting muddy. "

Lucy laughed.

"Definitely not like me then. I have no problem with mud. Now are you going to set up this game then?"

David nodded and quickly put the game into the xbox and passed Lucy a remote.

"You do know I'm going to win don't you."

"Yeah. That thought had crossed my mind. But we've only got maximum of an hour, you know your mam grounded you." Lucy said with a sigh, David groaned but nodded.

Half an hour later they were still going, David had beaten her in every game apart from once when Mica decided to help by stealing David's remote. Lucy enjoyed herself and was glad they she had this chance to cool down from the serious conversations that had been happening earlier. They were about to start another game but this time with her playing Rhiannon, as her and Johnny had rejoined the group when Lucy's phone went off.

"Hi Ianto." Lucy said as she picked it up,

"_I thought I'd come pick you up from the train station. The world is currently quiet so Jack's let Gwen and I go early. Something that wouldn't have been possible before. Have I mentioned how much I love what you've done in the job, gives us time to have an actual life. Anyway, how far away are you?"_

"I'm not." Lucy said with a slight wince. "I got an earlier train and am currently being beaten by your nephew at Mario Kart."

"_You're rubbish at video games."_ Ianto laughed.

"I know, that's why I'm being beaten."

Before she could say anything else Rhiannon stole the phone from Lucy.

"Ianto."

"_Rhiannon_?" he asked slightly confused by instantly taking it in his stride, _"Did you just nick Lucy's phone?"_

"Course I did. Anyway, do you want to come round for dinner tonight? I was going to make bolognaise."

"I'm working tonight." Lucy said quickly, "I need to be there for 8.30"

"No problem." Rhiannon shrugged, "That's David's bed time so it just means we won't have time for us adults to talk, the four of us. Well Ianto?"

"_Yeah. Ok then_." He agreed, _"It would be nice_."

"Great, you can pick some wine up on your way over. And before you say anything I know that if work calls you two will have to go in."

"_See you in a bit then_." Ianto said with a smile, "_Can I speak to Lucy again_?"

His sister pretended to think.

"Nah." And with that she hung up before looking at the kids. "Uncle Ianto's coming over for dinner. David your punishment can start tomorrow so we'll have time to have a proper championship, I don't want to punish your sister or your uncle as well. So if you haven't finished your homework make sure you do it now."

"They finished it with me earlier, don't nag them." Johnny said.

Lucy quickly took her phone back and locked it as she slipped it back into her pocket.

"Ok now you've done that are you prepared to lose at Mario Kart?"

"Never" Rhiannon laughed and Lucy grinned.

**A/N: This chapter didn't do what I thought it was going to do when I started it but apart from the end I'm happy with it. As for next week, the whole thing isn't finished yet but I reckon I've got the first couple of parts done.**

**See you next week and please review!**

**Rea**


	72. Chapter 72 - Where am I?, Part 1

Lucy woke up and was both surprised and confused to find herself lying in a hospital bed – she remembered Jack saying they were under attack and after that is was fuzzy. She presumed that she had come out of the attack badly but that still didn't explain why she was in the hospital and not the hub.

But as she tried to force herself to work out what had happened she realised that was not the case, they had defeat the alvainens and Jack had been suspicious and worried about how easily they had been defeated. Ianto and Gwen had complained about Jack thinking it had been easy – seeing as had been dead for a good few hours while they got the job done, they had been awake for 20hours and to be told it was too easy hadn't gone down well. Lucy remembered Jack eventually agreeing with them that he was simply being paranoid before he sent the three of the home for the rest of the night as well as giving them all the next day off as well; although Lucy planned to come in for a few hours, she had some paperwork to complete, before she went off to London for a couple of days to check up on Nick and how things were going. As they drove home Ianto had called for a pizza as they had both agreed they were too tired to think about cooking, and it was hardly like they couldn't afford it. One day they were going to use it to go on a huge holiday and take Rhiannon, Johnny and the kids but until then there was work to do.

Lucy remembered getting back home and the two of them collapsing onto the sofa, Ianto had channel surfed trying to find something good to watch while Lucy had just curled up against him and let her eyes drift shut as Ianto laughed at something on the TV. If she thought hard enough about it she half remembered the pizza arriving and but by that point she had been more asleep than awake.

So why had she woken up in a hospital room?

It wasn't like she'd been badly injured in the attack, in fact apart from Jack they'd all got off fairly lightly – nothing that wasn't unusual for alien invasions anyway. Besides even if she had been injured more than she'd thought Ianto would have taken her to the hub and called an emergency doctor down from London, or even someone from UNIT if they were that desperate. They didn't use the hospital due to the superior technology that was sitting underneath the Plass.

Her whole body ached and felt ridiculously heavy, it was similar to how she had felt when she had woken up from being shot. But when that had happened she had known why she was in the medbay and she had the rest of her team around her. Ianto had refused to move from the chair in the room Owen had put her in and the others dropped in and out all the time.

The fact that Ianto wasn't there now worried her more than the fact she found herself in an unfamiliar room with no knowledge of why she was there. It wasn't like Ianto to not be there, he worried about her enough day to day, although with their job she could completely understand why – she worried about him too.

So where was he?

She contemplated the thought that he had simply gone to go get something to eat but that didn't make sense, Ianto wouldn't leave her for food. He would have had someone either bring the food to him or have them sit with her while he was gone on the off chance that anything happened while he wasn't there. There was no one else in the room with her, and no signs of anyone ever being in there with her. If Ianto had had to leave he would have left some sign that he had been there, a note, a book, even just the paper – but there was nothing.

Now Lucy was properly taking notice of her surroundings to work out what had happened she realised that she was missing the familiar and comfortable weights on her hip and her thighs. Cecil and her knives were missing. Logically she knew that they would have been removed when she got into the hospital – whenever and whatever that was for. She didn't sleep with them for for that would have been both uncomfortable and unnecessarily paranoid, even for her. Ianto and the rest of the team knew that if she was waking up after being unconscious, which happened more often than she would have liked, she preferred to have the familiar weights on her side so she knew she could protect herself. As she didn't remember anything after defeating the alvainens, and she had taken more than a fair few knocks in that battle it made sense that she had been taken ill (maybe concussion) and that her weapons had been removed from her so as not to have to explain it to the doctors. But that didn't make sense either, because they could have just waved the badge and explained it away. Her head hurt from thinking and she was sure that there was an easy solution to this problem that she'd be able to grasp the minute she could think properly, Ianto probably had Cecil and her knives and had gone for food or something. Concussion was feeling more and more likely, she was simply over thinking things.

Lucy spotted an alert button on the side on the bed so she forced herself to move and press it, even though she was scared, confused and wanted to go back to sleep. A happy looking young nurse came in a minute later.

"Ahh my dear, you're awake?"

"Ianto?" Lucy asked, making herself sound sleepier than she was, people always told you more when they thought you weren't fully in the waking world, things could be explained away as dreams. "Where's Ianto?"

"You're had a relapse dear." The nurse explained, still in a cheery mood as she looked over Lucy's chart and shone a light in her eyes.

"What?" She was confused, her head was pounding and she wasn't much more awake than she pretend no matter how much she tried something kept trying to drag her back under. "I don't... don't understand. Where's Ianto?"

"He's not here sweetie."

This woke Lucy up in a second. Although she had worked this out for herself, to actually here that Ianto wasn't there worried her – the only possible reason she could think of for him not waiting for her to wake up was if he'd been called into work. And Jack would only do that if it he absolutely needed too no matter how long Lucy had been lying there. It could have been weeks and he would continue to allow Ianto to stay by her side for as long as the world, or Cardiff, wasn't under attack and he still got his work done.

"Where is he? What's happened to him? When did he go?"

"Now now dear, not now." The nurse laughed although it was slightly strained, Lucy could see that she was working out what to say carefully and she kept glancing towards the door, either because she wanted to leave or because she wanted someone else to come and join her for help. "You need to rest."

"Why not now?" Lucy growled, she was worried that something had happened and was starting to get more than annoyed with the way the nurse was talking to her.

"Because it's not important is it? What's important is that you're back with us, we were worried for a while that we'd lost you. It was a big relapse."  
"What kind of relapse?" Lucy asked her hands automatically curling into a fist.

"You can talk to the doctors about that dear." The nurse waved away the question although she did look worryingly at Lucy's clenched hands. "Just take your medication and go back to sleep." She pulled some tablets out of her pocket and started to pour some water from the jug on the besides table.

"I don't want to sleep or tablets. I want to know what's happened and where my boyfriend is." Lucy argued.

"I know dear," then nurse was saying distractedly, "just take these and it will all be better."

"I'm not taking anything." Lucy said stubbornly, although sleeping seemed like a brilliant idea and she could feel her body begging for it she refused to give in, she needed to find out what happened.

"This will make everything better." The nurse sighed as she tried to get Lucy to take the plastic cup again. "You just need to sleep and everything will be better in the morning"

"I'm not going to sleep." Lucy repeated, "What's going on? Why am I here? Where's Ianto?"

The nurse sighed.

"You had a relapse Miss Smith, it was obviously worse than we thought but you need to take these." She tried to force Lucy to take it but she fought back, her body may have felt as heavy as hell but something about this place felt wrong, and she was scared and Ianto wasn't there to reassure her that everything was going to be ok. The fact the nurse seemed determined to not tell her anything about where Ianto was and that worried her even more. She managed to kick the tablets out of the nurse's hand and throw the water on the floor.

"Some help in here!" The nurse called as she held struggled to hold Lucy down, three other nurses all came running in. "She doesn't want her tablets, and is getting agitated" The original nurse explained.

"Where's Ianto?" Lucy continued to ask as they started to overpower her, she kept moving for her knives or Cecil and then remembering too late that they weren't there. She decided once she got out of here she was going to train in hand to hand fighting – she didn't like being so weak. Her punches and kicks were hitting but they didn't have enough strength behind them to do anything more than be an annoyance.

"Someone get a doctor quickly" One of the other nurses said, "she needs to be sedated."

"No." Lucy kicked as hard as she could and was glad when the third nurse loosened her grip on her as she had been kicked in the stomach, "I don't want to sleep. Don't make me. IANTO!" She called desperate for him to come and find her. "JACK! IANTO?! FOR FUCKS SAKE GWEN?"

"She's getting worse doctor." Lucy heard the nurse who had left say as she walked back in.

"I've got the sedative" A welsh voice replied. A welsh voice that Lucy knew well. She stopped fighting to get free in surprise as she saw Ianto walk into her room.

"Ianto?" Lucy breathed, "what's happened? I don't understand."  
"I know you don't Miss Smith." Ianto replied with a smile although Lucy could see it wasn't a real smile. It lacked any warmth and his eyes lacked any of the love that normally shone out of them when he looked at her.

She was now held down completely Ianto quickly inserted a syringe in her lower neck, using her shock as a distraction.

"There, you'll sleep now."

"No." Lucy moaned although she knew it made no difference she could feel the blackness creeping up on her. "I don't want... Ianto?"

Her eyes shut and the last thing she saw was him glancing down at her while he ordered the nurses to tidy up and mused about upping her medication.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

When Lucy woke up again she was more aware than before, she knew that wherever she was she was in danger and missing all of her weapons. She was also attached to various hospital machines, registering her heart beat as well as other things that she was sure Owen had told her about once when she was bored or injured but never really cared enough to remember.

"I know you're awake." Ianto's voice said, except it wasn't Ianto. "I can see it on the machine."

"Where am I?" Lucy asked turning to look at the not-Ianto. She could see the differences now she was looking for them, there wasn't as many scars and his eyes were different. It wasn't just that they didn't hold love in them for her, but Ianto's eyes were old, same as every member of the team. Torchwood aged you and it was most obvious in the eyes, they had seen more than anyone else and the secrets and the pain was always visible if you knew what you were looking for. Ianto had told Lucy in the past that he always knew when she was actually fine and not just lying because he could see it. At the time she had been both annoyed and happy that he was one of the few people who could see through the mask that she constantly showed to the world.

"You're in a hospital Miss Smith."

"I'd worked that out for myself thanks."  
"Well that's something, normally after a relapse that bad people need a while to... well to think things through."  
"You haven't answered my question. Where am I? And why am I in a hospital, I have my own medic."  
"It's just outside of Brighton and I'm your doctor." Not-Ianto said after writing something on what she presumed was her chart and then putting it back down to look at her properly.

"I was in _Cardiff_ and Martha Jones is my doctor since my previous one died. How did I end up in Brighton? What happened?"  
"I'm afraid not Miss Smith." She could tell he was just trying to be kind but to her it simply came across as patronising. "Can you tell me what the last thing you remember happening was? What happened yesterday?"  
"You mean before I woke up here and you had me sedated? Why won't you answer my questions?"

"Yes please and because what you say will have an impact in what I tell you."  
"Can't tell you."  
"Why?"

"Because my job is confidential which is why I have my own medic. High level outside of the government only answer to a select few stuff."  
"Well humour me, tell me what you can."  
"We had a situation at work, I dealt with it while my boss was busy and then went home with my boyfriend. We had dinner and I went to sleep. Then I woke up here."  
"Interesting..." He quickly wrote down something else before putting the chart back again. "You seem to have gone straight back, I wonder why..."  
"Straight back where? Listen I don't know what they've told you or what they've promised you or even who told you to take me because that is currently the only reason I can think of for none of my team being here. But this, me, is way out of your league." She sat up and stared at him who just looked at her as though he knew a joke that she didn't. It was disturbing to see that expression on Ianto's face but she shoved any emotion down. "Oh and tell your boss that stealing my boyfriend's face really isn't the way to get any answers out of me, neither is the nice doctor routine."

"Unfortunately for you Miss Smith this is my real face and I really am a nice doctor. Shall I tell you what happened yesterday?" He was still smiling and looked as though he'd done this before which caused Lucy to wonder how many times he had done this. How often had she woken up and refused to tell him anything and then be sedated again?  
"You kidnapped me during the night after drugging Ianto to make sure he didn't hear anything in the hope that I would break and tell you everything you want to know about my company? I don't know who came up with that plan and why they thought I was the one to go after but I'll tell you know you're wasting your time. I'm the second in command for fucks sake... ahh..." She sighed as she worked out why it was her that had been kidnapped. "I know the codes, Ianto and Gwen don't know them and you know there's a snowballs chance in hell of Jack telling you something. So I'm the lucky winner... although I suppose you could have gone after Nick but the London branch hasn't been going for long enough for him to know anything as useful as what I could tell you. Plus with me gone... clever."  
"I'm glad you think so much of us, although it's not the truth." Not-Ianto smiled at sat down on the chair next to her bed, the chair that was obviously there for friends and family. "Have you looked round this room properly Miss Smith? I think when I open the curtains you'll understand better..." He stood up at pulled the curtain back, allowing the sunlight to beam in to the room, jumping off posters and walls.  
"What are you on about?" She asked although Lucy obliged him and looked round the room only to see pictures of herself and Becky and posters. More specifically Doctor Who and Torchwood posters, posters that had no right being in this universe, they weren't the three that she had brought with her these were ones she had one her room at home, before. She looked at the books and noticed the one by the side of the bed. 'The Forever War' something she hadn't quite got round to reading yet but had an old baby picture of Becky being used as a bookmark, a picture of Becky, her and her mum that she had painstakingly taped back together when her dad had ripped it apart. A picture she had given to Becky when she was taken into care.

"What the hell have you done? HOW did you get this stuff?" She asked, no longer happy to just go along with the scenario, her hands automatically went for one of her knives or Cecil only to grasp on thin air as she was reminded that she didn't have any weapons on her. Instead she let her hands curl into fists as she tensed, ready to run.

"I've not done anything Miss Smith, please don't panic or try to run. We've got security at the hospital for your protection as much as ours and after your relapse and … episode... this morning there is one on the other side of the door. You've been with us just over six months Miss Smith."  
"Answer the damn question." She growled.

"I haven't done anything or taken anything, you put all this stuff up yourself. The posters have helped as much as hindered but they often help you come back to reality which is why I've allowed you to keep them."

"Ok. You've got ten seconds before I take your pen and stab you in the leg with it. One. Two..."

"Miss Smith you are ill, please think rationally."

"Four. Five"  
"Torchwood is a TV show, you relapsed yesterday after your dad - "

"DON'T TALK ABOUT THAT BASTARD!" She snapped before taking a deep breath and resuming counting. "Seven. Eight."

"Miss Smith you are in hospital with a severe case of schizophrenia." Not-Ianto said quickly taking a step closer to the door seeing that she was serious. The security guard also popped his head round, obviously worried after hearing Lucy shouting.

"You ok doc?"

"It's fine, she's just not quite back with us yet." He replied, the guard shrugged and went back to his role. "See..." The doctor said. "You're in a hospital and there's a guard outside. You've got nowhere to run to, and before you try the window you can't open it far enough. It's locked. You've been having delusions Miss Smith."  
"Get out." Lucy said trying to keep control of her temper, there was only so long you could cope with seeing a stranger look out of your partner's face and to be told that she was mad as well was the final straw.

"Miss Smith, I..."  
"Get out. I don't know where you got this stuff from but I can promise you that when my team find me the only thing that will stop them killing you is if I say you've been nice to me. So get the hell out, I don't know how you got Ianto's DNA and were able to replicate his face, maybe you're a clone and you really think this is real, I don't know. But. Get. Out."  
"I'm not the one who's unable to see reality." He said writing a prescription. "I'll get your meds changed back to what they were, looks like we took you off them too early."  
"If you think I'm taking anything you give me you are sorely mistake." She scoffed.  
"I'll see you later Miss Smith."

"My team will get me out soon, so I wouldn't count on it. We have had to deal with in invasion yesterday, or the day before you brought me here, so they might be a bit slow but they'll be here."  
"I'm sorry, but they really won't be. The guard will stay outside until we think you are safe enough to join everyone else again" He said, looking at her pityingly one last time before leaving. She glared at him and pulled at the strap around her wrist that she'd just noticed, one that declared her an inpatient of a psychiatric hospital. Whatever had happened, however she had been captured – and she still wasn't sure how that had happened – they had done a good job of it. She had no idea what had happened to Jack, or Ianto, Gwen or even Rhys. Later she would care about that; later she would work out a way of getting out but right now she would bide her time. Right now Lucy was going to pretend that she wasn't scared, that she wasn't doing her best not to break down in fear. Right now she was going to pretend that she was the Doctor, that she could face anything.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy woke up and rolled over in her bed, thinking she'd tell Ianto about her dream. Her nightmare that she hadn't woken up screaming, crying, or shaking from as well as it being completely different from any other nightmare she'd ever had before. And Lucy was no stranger to nightmares, neither was Ianto, but their nightmares normally stuck to existing memories; things that had actually happened in their life just made worse, people they had failed blaming them for their mistakes, real life being warped. Not being told that they were unable to see reality and were actually in mental hospital.  
It was only when Ianto wasn't there that she realised she wasn't in her bed at home in Cardiff but in a single bed with scratchy sheets, she didn't want to open her eyes and still find herself in the nightmare but she knew that she had to face reality. It had already changed for her once before and pretending that nothing had happened wouldn't help. After silently counting to three she opened her eyes and her heart still dropped when she saw what she had expected to see, a hospital room covered in posters and pictures, in her things. Things that she didn't remember placing there.  
One would assume that as someone who had fallen through the rift and the whole of reality had changed that she'd be the most likely to accept that reality had changed again. Except because of her experience she was actually the least likely to accept it, she knew what it was like to be pulled from one reality to another and this wasn't that. When she had woken up in the 'Whoniverse' her head had been buzzing for ages as her mind tried to make sense of the completely new world around her and the new information.

Owen had theorised through his study of her and Sam's DNA and how long it had taken for their headaches to disappear and to be able to think properly that it was entirely possible to live in a different universe (something Lucy could have already told him using Mickey and Rose as examples) but the small differences meant that it took a while to be able to properly understand the information that was going into your brain and to adapt to the world around you. It was like when people had organs replaced – he had guessed – that they were different but close enough to be accepted even though you may have to continually take tablets to make sure there was no chance of rejection.  
When she had originally woken up yesterday she had been confused and scared but the world felt the same, it felt like she had just woken up. It was that she decided to cling onto, if she had really gone back to her original universe she would know. There was nothing to back up this theory except her belief that she would know, for now belief and memory of how it originally felt would have to do. At some point they would screw up and something would happen to back up her belief, but until then she would wait. Wait and see what she could learn about these people.

After coming to a decision and treating this as a Torchwood Incident Lucy automatically felt more in control, she had no idea how they had taken her or got all the paraphernalia to decorate her room with but there were still flaws in this plan. Flaws that they didn't know about and that she was grasping onto with all that she could.

She got up and grabbed a random t-shirt from the side noticing that it was a geek top from home that she loved but hadn't brought with her – once more reinforcing that whoever these people were they were good. It was time to find out more about the world she was in and leave the bedroom, if they would let her. The door wasn't locked but there was still a guard sitting on a chair outside the door.

"Am I allowed to leave?" She asked, trying not to show her annoyance. The guard didn't say anything straight away but just pressed a button on his pager.

"Wait for the Doc to come and check on you first Miss Smith."

"So I'm stuck in here then," She sighed, not that she really expected any different. She had been kidnapped and they were asserting their authority. Plus this place did actually seem to be a working mental hospital by the looks of it (and the posters on the wall that managed to be out of date and both brand new) and she wasn't sure how many people were involved in the kidnapping and who were just normal staff. Besides she _had_ kicked off yesterday when she woke up and needed to be sedated, if they wanted to persuade her that this was real – fat chance – they would have to act like she was a real patient. And they wouldn't let a sedated patient who needed guarding have the freedom to walk around the hospital without getting permission from their doctor.

The guard didn't say anything in response but she could see that he thought she was just one of many patients that could 'go off' at any minute, hence why he was needed to guard them.

"Do you know how long the doctor is going to be?" She asked when he continued to say nothing.

"He'll do rounds soon." He replied. "Just wait in your room for him to come."

"Thanks." Lucy said, there was no point being rude to someone who could just be a member of staff. If she discovered he was part of the kidnap team – which was possible – then that might change. And if she played along they could slip up, she'd have to fight to begin with and then pretend to give up, and then try to fight and escape again (that would almost certainly fail but they would be suspicious if she didn't try. She had laughed when she had read the chapter in the Torchwood handbook that discussed how to deal with kidnappings; the first attempt was more about getting a lay of the land and to make them think that they had won if they caught you. It was a trail run more than anything, although you should still try and escape.)

**A/N: So this is a chapter that I haven't actually finished writing. I've got the update for next week but not any more than that, it'll be exciting to see what happens *smirks*  
However I do like what I've got planned and how this chapter will continue to devolope, let me know what you think is going on in a REVIEW.**

**See you next week,**

**Rea**


	73. Chapter 73 - Where am I? Part 2

"I've been told you've had a set back and are now refusing your tablets. Why is that Lucy?"

Lucy was sat in a therapists office (apparently _her _therapist and if she believed what she was being told she'd been seeing him for more than a few months). It didn't look like how she had imagined it to look, nor how they were shown on TV or in the films. It was a normal office with filing cabinets and posters saying that you shouldn't be ashamed to seek help and that you should tell people if you were struggling. The only difference was as well as a main desk at the back there was a smaller set of comfier chairs by the window with a low table with a jug of water and two glasses next to them.  
Lucy didn't say anything in response to his question, just continued to stare out of the window onto the hospital grounds and gardens which had a high fence to stop people escaping

"Lucy you must understand that I can't clear you to go back with the others until you talk to me." He tried again and she just shrugged, caring more about the bird that had just landed on the tree. Not that she didn't care about what he was saying, but she knew the truth and she was bound by the Official Secrets Act. She had previously been shocked by her new environment so had said more than was needed and might have made them think they had the upper hand, she didn't intend to make that mistake again.

"Ok why don't you tell me what Doctor Who means to you?" He tried a third tactic to make her talk. "I, myself, enjoyed watching them as a child and William Hartnell was my doctor although I enjoyed Troughten and Pertwee too."  
That surprised Lucy more than anything since she'd got there, even seeing someone with Ianto's face claiming to be her doctor. At no point since she had traveled through the rift had she mentioned the names of the actors who had played the Doctor. The surprise must have shown on her face because he continued to talk.  
"I stopped watching for a while, managed to be one of the only people to miss most of Tom Baker but started again with 5, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric who were my TARDIS team through university. I would have put you down for a New Who fan so 9 and Rose, but you've said before you're more of an Ace girl. It's a good TV show, but that's all it is. A TV show."  
Lucy couldn't stop herself flinching on the inside every time he said another name, she might have mentioned a few of them in passing before, she had definitely had conversations with Jack about Rose and his time in the TARDIS, but she didn't remember talking about the 5th Doctor's TARDIS team. It was the amount of knowledge that this man had that was starting to scare her.  
It was one thing to know she was Torchwood, it wasn't something that she hid, but it was another to know where she came from. That meant they had access to the Torchwood Software and maybe UNIT's as well if they knew previous companions names. It only just hit her what it meant for them to have access into the Torchwood System though, there had been no signs of hacking which meant that someone must have given them permission. A member of the London team, someone that she had probably employed, had turned on her. The only consolation she had was that it wouldn't have been anyone from Cardiff.  
She finally broke her silence  
"Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962" Name, Rank, Serial Number. He seemed to have expected this response but wrote something down anyway  
"You haven't asked yourself what this means if it's real have you?"  
"Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962"  
"What it means for your family if you are in here."  
"Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command –  
"What it means for your _sister_?"  
"378… 3785962"  
"Well while you still continue to real off your serial number I can't allow you to spend time with the others. You obviously think that you are still under attack and that makes you a risk. I'll see you again tomorrow morning Miss Smith. Please don't attack your guard as he walks you back to your room, you are not going to be able to escape."

It was the third day since Lucy had woken up and been told that Torchwood was just a dream, an illusion of her mental illness. She still wasn't buying it and hadn't said anything to her 'therapist' when he continued to ask questions about Torchwood. That meant that he still deemed her a 'risk' and therefore wasn't allowed out of her room. The solitary confinement wasn't pleasant and she spent most of her days reading or trying to work out ways to escape or get a message back to the rest of the team.  
The nurse came in and ran hers checks, while the guard stayed in the open doorway in case Lucy attacked them. She tutted at the sight of the untouched tablets but left breakfast on the table and poured a coffee while she measured Lucy's blood pressure. Lucy knew it was possible they were putting drugs in her food but she also knew that she needed to eat and if they were drugging her she hadn't seen any sign of the effects yet. That didn't mean that she wouldn't be reporting to Martha when she got back, to make sure that there was nothing in her system. Not that she would have a choice anyway, Ianto and Jack would make sure that Martha would be there waiting for them when they finally got her out.

Lucy drank the coffee gratefully and buttered the toast.  
"Your appointment this morning is at 9am"  
"Don't suppose you can get me some new books?" Lucy asked instead of saying anything about the appointment. There was nothing she could do about that after all. "I'm bored of these ones."  
"I'll see what we've got in the lounge and have them here when you get back" The nurse replied and Lucy smiled in thanks. She didn't think the nurse was in on the kidnap attempt and even if she was there was no need to make her day to day life more difficult. The more passive Lucy was now the less they would anticipate her escape. Not that she had much of a plan, except get them to think that she was starting to doubt herself and that they were winning. She hoped that they were coming up with a better plan for getting her out than she had come up with so far

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I was wondering Miss Smith, if you've thought more on my question."

Lucy didn't say anything just raised an eyebrow, he had asked lots of questions and she had responded to pretty much every single one with name, rank, and serial number.

"The one about your sister."

Lucy still didn't say anything, but she had been thinking about her sister. There wasn't much to do and being alone left her plenty of time to think. As for where her sister was , she knew where Becky was – in a care home in East Brighton in another universe. One where aliens only existed on the TV and in fiction. She was finally reaching a point of forgiving herself for deserting her sister, even if it wasn't by choice. She had found her place in the world, in another world and if she knew that Tosh's equations would definitely get her home it wouldn't even be a question but she didn't have that certainty. All she knew was that the equations would do something – Sam had disappeared after all. He was a braver man than her taking that risk, the chance of getting home first try was around 45%.

"Have you let yourself think about where she might be if this is real?" He prompted and she still didn't say anything. Which was better than her reeling of name, rank, and serial number. After 3 days they had to think they were getting to her. (The fact that that thought had crossed her mind in the dark was neither here nor there.)

"What about your father?" This time she did react, her whole face hardened and her eyes turned cold as she thought of the man who had made her life a living hell.

"I know that you don't want this to be real. That you'd rather live in a world with heroes as well as monsters, in a world where you are one of those heroes. Saving the world. I understand that but that doesn't mean it's real, right now I just want you to accept that possibility. You don't have to accept it as truth just admit that it might be possible."

She didn't say anything else and he sighed.

"You can join the other for dinner tonight under supervised conditions, but I want you to promise me you'll at least think about it."

She shrugged and stood up, not wanting to commit to anything. Not yet. Although the prospect of seeing other people that evening was something to look forward to.

"So where do you think your sister is, providing this is all real of course?" He asked again, the same way he had been asking every morning for the past week. Every other time Lucy had just shrugged but today she spoke.

"At the care home." He hadn't been excepting her to say anything and dropped his pen in surprised. Lucy just looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he leaned down to pick it up and put the file face down on his desk so he could talk to her properly.

"You think Becky is at a care home." He prompted and she nodded, not wanting to give him much more. She had been there for long enough that the idea that they wouldn't find her crossed her mind more than she would like and getting herself out seemed like the best idea possible. The only way she would be able to do that would be if she played along with their game.

"If I'm here and you know about Dad then you'd have placed her in care." It was obvious really and she hadn't lied. They had found out about Dad it was simply that the 'here' she meant was in regards to the universe and not the mental hospital. "Can I go into the gardens this afternoon?" She asked changing the subject. So far they were now allowing her to join others at meals, although it was still supervised as she continued to refuse their medication.

"You won't be able to escape if that's what you're planning."

"I just want to sit outside" Lucy insisted. The fact that a walk around the grounds would give her more of a possibility to seek out any flaws in their security would be an improvement on her current situation. But she did just want to be outside for a while, she couldn't get much of a breeze in her room due to the bars across the window. She was starting to resign herself to playing the long game and being there a while, and made a point every morning of reminding herself that she would get out, whether it was under her own steam or due to a rescue. She would not be stuck there forever.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It had been a month since Lucy had woken up in a psychiatric hospital and as much as she didn't want to believe it, being constantly told that you had a psychotic episode and that everything you thought was real was just an hallucination was starting to get at her. She wanted to believe in Torchwood, in Ianto, and the world of aliens and the Doctor. A world where she was important and made a difference. But it was taking more and more effort everyday to remind herself that someone was looking for her and that she wasn't mad.

She was still seeing her therapist everyday but she had stopped giving him the name rank and serial number. Or rather she would try and he would just look at her and ask his question again. They were never questions about Torchwood, or even Doctor Who, so she didn't feel bad about breaking her silence and talking to him. He had tried asking her about her father and the scars on her back but she had clammed up and although he tried again a few times it was a topic she was refusing to talk about just as much as she wasn't talking about Torchwood. Instead he asked her about other things, what she thought of the book she was reading, how she was getting along with the other patients (she no longer needed a security guard near her at all times, although there was always one around as she continued to refuse her medication).

"I thought I'd ask you something different today." Steve – he had been very insistent that she called him by his first name – asked and she just shrugged. He tried to make her open up most days and she didn't mind talking to him, especially since he had stopped writing notes while she was talking and instead scribbled it all down at the end. "What do you want to do when you get out of here?"

It was something that Lucy hadn't wanted to think about, because there were two options. Be rescued by Torchwood or discover that she really had gone mad and it was all just a dream. A wonderful, brilliant, horribly vibrant dream that normal life would struggle to stand up to.  
But there was one bright spot. One thing in this world that she still had. Becky. If Torchwood had never been real then she could still see Becky. She had asked a few times if she could call Becky's care home and speak to her sister, the nurse had given her a pitying look but said that the doctors and care workers didn't think it was a good idea. Which was bullshit because it was a great idea, if Becky was here then Lucy would do everything needed to get out of there and back to her. Which of course was the reason they didn't think it would happen, she had to stop being so dependent on her sister and 'get better for herself and not for the sake of anyone else'.  
_"When_ I get out of here?" She put emphasis on the first word, unsure if they'd ever actually let her out, she'd have to get herself out waiting for the rest of the team was no longer possible. She didn't want to believe that Ianto would ever stop looking for her but it had been a month and other things would need his attention, there was only so much time Torchwood could dedicate to a missing agent even if that agent was the second in command. After a month it would have to be put on the back burner and unless she was able to send a signal to them that she was still alive they would have to presume she was dead. That was if Torchwood was real.  
"You will get out of here Lucy and having a goal, something to work for is always a good idea."  
"I just want to sleep in my own bed." She said refusing to tell him anything more than that at that moment. She couldn't tell him if she wanted to hug her sister and never let go or if she wanted go onto the shooting range and get rid of all the anger and annoyance from being in a psych ward for so long. Walking down Brighton beach or down Cardiff Bay. Going to sleep with Teddy or with Ianto.

Lucy wanted to believe in the latter of those options, in a mug of coffee waiting for her, Martha waiting with a long list of tests that was needed and Jack ordering her and Ianto to not come in for a couple of days as she refused to let him out of her sight. She even wanted to see Gwen. But at the same time the story they were telling her was starting to become more real and she was starting to think about finally having the inpatient tag on her wrist cut off while she held Becky close and the two of them went to a chippy and challenging each other on the pier.  
Wanting to sleep in her own bed was a safe answer and possible whatever world was true.

"And do what? Go back to working in the shop? Finishing your degree? The world is out there Lucy and having a long term goal will help you stay on track. As will taking your tablets."  
Lucy didn't say anything, she had been waiting for him to mention the tablets again as he hadn't said anything for a while. The nurses still looked disappointed every morning when they took her tray of food away and the small pot of tablets was untouched.

"You know this Lucy, we're not giving you tablets just for fun or to keep you under out control they will help keep you stable."

"I want to get my sister back." Lucy said stopping him before he got fully into his talk about just how important the tablets were. She knew that if this world was real she would end up taking them because there was no chance they would let her out without making sure that the 'delusions' were kept under control. But she wasn't anywhere near ready to give up on Torchwood yet. What she was willing to do was admit the possibility. Therefore she answered his original question, what did she want to go when she got out of here, she wanted to get her sister back with her and leave Brighton and never return. The city was full of memories and dark shadows, she would also never be able to step foot in Cardiff again. In a city which she remembered living in and loving, she knew the backstreets of Cardiff better than people who had lived in the city all their lives. She could tell you which was the best way to get into certain parts of the sewer and how to get onto roofs of buildings. The idea that her knowledge might not be true, that the city she loved wasn't really there was unbearable. She'd take Becky somewhere completely new, somewhere that had no memories attached; maybe Ireland or somewhere up north.

"I want to get Becky back and find somewhere new for the pair of us. Somewhere were we can be happy."

His eyes were full of pity and she knew that she wouldn't like what he said next.

"What do you remember of that day?" Steve asked gently.  
"What day?" Lucy was being deliberately obtuse

"The day of the crash?"

"I remember her in the air and crashing to the ground, and my scream as the bastard driver thought he'd save time by just pulling up to the front rather than actually parking and picking his kid up like everyone else."  
"Anything else? Do you remember what happened next?"  
Lucy forced herself to think of the worst day of her life, a close second was the day she had come back from school to find Becky crying on the sofa and her mother lying on the sofa with cuts all down her arm and a pool of blood.  
"It's important you tell me Lucy, I can't help if you don't talk about it." Steve prompted.  
"What if I don't want to talk about it. Who wants to actually think about the worst day of their lives? Becky was hit by a car, what more do you want me to say?"  
"I know it's not pleasant but you need to open up about it."  
"What difference does it make, telling you what happened won't get me out of here. I'm still not going to take the tablets."  
"I know you don't want to be here, no one wants to be here and we don't want you to stay for any longer than needed, but refusing to take your tablets and not talking about that day won't help."  
"I have talked about that day." Lucy said steadfastly, now no longer looking at Steve and watching the rain fall outside.  
"But not since your most recent lapse." He kept pushing at her  
"I want to go back to my room." Lucy stood up, unwilling to deal with this conversation again or even to return to name, rank and serial number.  
"If you don't deal with what happened then you'll never be able to move on, there is only so much the tablets can do when you're fighting your own mind."  
"I want to go back to my room."

"Where do you think your sister is?" He persisted, "I'll let you go if you want once we discuss this."  
"You can't force me to discuss anything."  
"No but I can keep you here for as long as I think is necessary."

"She's at a care home, enjoying herself and making new friends, maybe she's been fostered and that's why you won't let me call her. Because you think it'll upset me to hear that she's got a new family."

"She's not been fostered or adopted."  
"I answered your question now let me go."  
"She's not at a care home either."

"So where is she? Don't tell me you let Dad take her back..." Lucy's voice grew threatening at the idea that they had given her sister back to the man that had made her life a living nightmare.  
"Your father does not have her, although I hear he visits her regularly."  
"He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near her!" She snapped. "I don't care what he's told you."  
"He's sobered up and got himself a new job. He wants to see you."  
"Well I don't want to see him, ever." She tried to force herself to calm down. "So where's Becky then? If Dad doesn't have her and she's not in a care home or fostered... don't tell me you've lost her and she's living on the streets. Which friend is she living with? Vicki was her best friend at school, has her mum taken her in?"  
"Becky's with your mum." He said softly which made Lucy scoff.  
"You might be trying to tell me I'm mad and that everything I remember for the past 2 years is a lie but I remember walking back from a good day at school to find her body." Steve didn't say anything and allowed her to continue to the natural conclusion of what he had told her. "No..." She turned as white as snow as she realised what he was trying to tell her and stumbled back into the wall. "But I remember the ambulance journey, she was in a coma for six weeks. She woke up... I remember her waking up... I gave her... she woke up..."  
"It's called a fugue state, your brain couldn't deal with what happened and mixed with the fact that you were prone to Schizophrenia anyway because of your mother your mind retreated into a world that you deemed as safe."  
"STOP LYING TO ME!" She shouted as he tried to approach her. "I remember, she woke up. This is all a lie to try and keep me here so I'll give you the codes. Well it's not happening. Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962. Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962. Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962."  
"You need to accept what happened."  
"It DIDN'T happen. Becky is alive. She's not dead, she can't be dead. Lucy Smith, 2nd in Command, 3785962."  
"You know it's true, I was hoping you'd remember on your own but it's been a month and there's no sign of you doing it naturally."

"She's NOT dead."  
"You need to calm down."  
"You've just told me my sister, my little girl, is dead and you want me to be calm. How the hell do you think I'm going to react? Let me out of here or you'll learn that you haven't taken all the things out of this room that I could hurt you with. You've got pens in here, those can go into your neck and into the carotid artery. Could smash these chairs against the wall and that'd give me plenty of weapons. Let. Me. Out."

Steve pressed the alert button and a couple of security guards came running in less than a minute later. There was a fight that was briefer than Lucy would have liked although she was glad of it as a way to ignore what she had just been told, (there was no way that Becky was dead), she was pinned and injected with a sedative that took the fight out of her, as her brain started to shut down she remembered the awkward way her sister had crashed on the ground and the blood that covered her hands when she got to her side.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Hi guys, I thought I'd give you an early morning update this week. I've got at least another week of this original story line pre-written and there will probably be at least another 3 chapters/weeks to go. I'm having lots of fun with it :D**

**Please don't forget to review, they make me very happy and seeing as I've just thrown hot chocolate down my work shirt I need all the happiness I can get.  
Rea**


	74. Chapter 74 - Where am I? Part 3

**A/N: Welcome to part 3. Happy Friday!**

Lucy woke up, and for a second felt fine but knew that she shouldn't, that something had changed and she would never feel 'fine' again. The truth crashed into her like a physical weight. Becky was dead. No, they claimed Becky was dead. Except... Except if it was true it would make sense and all the doctors had said it was a miracle that Becky hadn't been killed instantly and that the chances of her making a full recovery were slim to none.

Maybe she had made it all up, she tried to convince herself that it was a lie, she remembered how it felt to endlessly fall and for your body to be pulled apart, she remembered lying next to Ianto, the feeling of the bullet ripping through her leg and Ianto telling her he loved her as she focused on the blood. But those memories felt fuzzy and the image of Becky on the ground not moving was stronger. She wasn't sure if she could remember someone telling her that Becky was never going to move again, or if she was just remembering the nightmares.

She tried to move and wasn't surprised to find that she was handcuffed to the bed, whether that was to make sure she didn't hurt herself or other members of staff she wasn't sure.  
Her eyes didn't leave the picture of the two of them looking happy that was on her bedside table, it had been taken the day of the crash and although she remembered it being taken she didn't remember ever printing it, what with Becky being in hospital and going into care she had been distracted. It was a nice photo and she couldn't help but smile at the memory of them being happy and laughing at each other and at the camera. Becky couldn't be dead, she just couldn't.

And yet... yet the image of people all wearing black and telling her they were sorry seeped into the memory which was blurring and becoming something difficult to deal with. She knew that everyone said good things about Becky, that all the teachers had come to the funeral as well as most of the kids in her class, she remembered the pitying looks from the parents who now knew why their children were never invited over. All the clichés about her being a happy little girl who was taken too soon, nothing about her tendency to be a stubborn brat when it was just the pair of them but who instantly went silent when the door opened and their dad stumbled in.

Lucy gasped as the memory of Becky's funeral played itself out in front of her as though she was a ghost watching it, she tried to force herself to think of the day when Becky woke up for the first time and how long it had taken for her to be able to be awake for a day – coma's took a lot out of a person - but it wasn't working.

She rolled over on the bed and shut her eyes so she didn't have to see anything, not that that made much of a difference, Lucy held Teddy close to her and wished it was Ianto. If it was Ianto then it would just be a fake memory and everything would be ok again. She had never thought that spending her time chasing aliens and organising the revival/set up of a giant company would ever be 'normal' or 'ok' but at that moment it was all she desired; to go chasing through the sewers after weevils. In those moments with adrenaline rushing through her system and the stench of what she was rushing through she couldn't deny that she was alive, the chance of slipping and landing face first in human waste or having a weevil potentially jumping her was better than this. This feeling on numbness and despair, it felt like her heart had been ripped out and stomped on. She had never understood all those stupid phrases until it that moment. She had been able to cope with losing Becky for the past couple of years because Becky was still alive, she was still happy. The idea of her going mad because Becky was dead was completely believable, of course she'd retreat into her mind to escape from it because it was just too much to deal with.

The nurse walked in and Lucy blankly opened her eyes and watched as the older woman went through the same motions she did every morning of putting the breakfast down, also a small pot with 3 different tablets in and a glass of water. For the first time she grabbed the pot and put the tablets in her mouth quickly swallowing it down with the water, she would take anything to not feel this way. If they were drugging her to get more information about Torchwood at least she wouldn't be thinking about her sister – her dead sister – and if this was real then she just didn't care about what they gave her. Before the nurse could say anything, although her surprised face said it all, Lucy shut her eyes again and tried to force herself to sleep, not that that was ever truly possible. But one of the tablets must have been to help with sleep or have been a mild sedative because within 10 minutes Lucy was asleep again.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy was sitting in the lounge for the first time since her 'relapse', she was finally considered safe to interact with the other patients. She had discovered that James was a manic depressive, Maria was there because she was on suicide watch and Christian was hearing voices and seeing things – he 'also' had schizophrenia. She still wasn't convinced that what they were telling her was real, and was actively denying it but that small voice of reason that was on their side was starting to get louder every day. It was weird to be around people other than the nurses, the doctor and her therapist but a good kind of weird. She still jumped at loud noises and her instinct was to reach for her gun or knives but no one thought her weird. Christian was busy having half a conversation and swear loudly at the air and that was normal. It was odd being allowed the time to just sit and watch TV, later that afternoon she was due to have another session with Steve and then after that she had been enrolled on an art therapy course. They told her that she had been on it before the relapse but as she had no memory of it they'd start from scratch until she started remembering things again. If remembering meant this place being real and Becky's death she didn't want to remember but it didn't change the fact that annoyingly that made sense, she was still trying to think of a way to escape and figured her best bet was on seeing if she could steal a car just driving out, annoyingly they had thought of most ways to get out and covered all of them. But no one was stupid to just try and drive out in the middle of the say so that would be her plan. Because she was stupid enough, or rather she was desperate enough to find proof that none of this was real and that her life in Cardiff hadn't just been a figment of a completely destroyed mind.

No matter how much she tried to not say anything and to ignore the memories of Becky's funeral and the days preceding it she couldn't. So when Steve asked her how things were and how she was coping and about small memories of Becky that she could think about without focusing on her death she started telling him about Becky's school sports day which she had been able to take the day off work to go and see. How proud she had been when her little sister came out in a top which declared her as part of the green team. Their team might have lost but Becky had won the skipping race and was given a sticker which she had immediately put on her bedroom door. Lucy hadn't thought about the 'winner' sticker in years but suddenly that faded smiley face was all she could think about. Becky had continued to put all the stickers she had gained at school for good work but that first one was the biggest and had continued to be her favourite. It had become faded from the sun until it was difficult to tell what it was and Lucy had gently brought up the idea that it was time to take the sticker off but Becky had insisted that it stayed so nothing else was said about the matter. She hadn't even told Ianto about the sticker it was such a small thing but in that moment as she sat in Steve's office it was more important than anything. She found herself launching into another story about the library visits and the deal they had made about what books to get out, Becky was allowed to pick one book at random for Lucy every other week and enjoyed this responsibility and felt important asking the librarians for advice as to what book to pick out that Lucy might like.

"She sounds like a great kid." Steve said, "Its understandable how you reacted to her passing."

"She's not dead." Lucy said forcefully as if the more she said it the more it would be true.  
"Because living in a TV show and being in a relationship with one of the main characters is more likely?" It wasn't said sarcastically he sounded like he was genuinely interested in what her answer would be and Lucy stumbled. Because of course it wasn't more likely, nothing about Torchwood was 'likely' but that didn't mean it wasn't real. She remembered what it felt like to be shot and to feel the wind biting at her as she ran after Weevils.

"I never said it was likely." She muttered, not having a defense and still not wanting to break the OSA. They sat in silence for a bit before Steve spoke again.

"I don't know what to do with you Lucy, you've started taking the tablets again which means part of you must believe that this is true and that you're ill and yet you still won't admit that you didn't end up in a TV show and you cling to it like a security blanket."

"Just let me go back to Cardiff and I'll make sure that Jack is lenient with you." Lucy replied feeling herself slip into Torchwood mode again. "You don't have to keep me here, just let me leave and you'll never see me again. I promise I won't even go looking for the truth and you can just disappear."  
"See this is what I mean. You still think that you've been kidnapped, for what?"  
"For Torchwood access codes, although mine should have been changed by now anyway so you gain nothing by keeping me here. You can't get into the system, the only thing you can use me for now is a bargaining chip and you don't seem interested in doing that."  
"Or this is all in your head and we're really trying to help." He pointed out tapping his pen on the arm rest. "How do you feel about a field trip? You'd have to be heavily supervised as you are still a risk to yourself and others but I think it could be the exact shock therapy that you need."  
"Where would you take me?" She asked suspiciously, her mind already trying to work out what angle he was trying to play as well as coming up with more escape plans. Escaping from supervision would be a lot easier than escaping from the complex.

"That would be a surprise." He said firmly and Lucy shrugged as though she didn't really care.

"Yeah, ok. When?"  
"As soon as I can get the supervision covered. Hopefully in the next couple of days or so, I think it could be important for you to see that we really are just trying to help and that we haven't kidnapped you."

"Hmm..." Lucy didn't say anything else she still found herself doubting if Torchwood was real or if it really was all in her mind as a defense mechanism but the consequences of it not being real were too big.

"I want you to do me a favour between now and then though. As you're still clinging to the idea that we've kidnapped you for Torchwood security codes I want you to write down one of the codes for me. You don't have to show it to anyone and you can rip it up afterwards but I want you to at least think about the possibility that we don't want these codes from you and that you're the one who is holding yourself back. " She mentally agree that his idea had merit but that didn't mean she'd be doing it. Writing the codes down wasn't quite as bad as saying them out loud but it still broke the Official Secrets Act and it wouldn't be too difficult for someone to put the pieces back together again after they had been ripped up. "You don't look too keen about the idea."  
"As a rule you don't write passwords down where they can be found, it goes against the idea of passwords."  
"Ok, can you write down why you think we'd kidnap you then. As you said you've been here over a month, at this point the codes would have been changed so the ones you know won't be of any use to us. So why do you think we'd keep you here if we didn't really think it was in your best interests? And at the next meeting I can go through the list with you and let you know why each reason isn't valid."  
"You could just be lying."  
"I could but you don't think I am do you? You've started taking your medication again so there must be part of you that knows that this is real and that you are sick and there is nothing wrong with being ill."

"I'm not ill."  
"So why are you taking the medication then?" He persisted not wanting to let the point pass by. "You wouldn't take pain killers if you weren't in pain so why are you taking psychiatric drugs?"

"Because it means you'll let me out of my room." She replied flippantly. "Can I go now?"  
"We've still got half an hour left of the session but yes you can go. I want you to think about it though Lucy, we can't help you if you don't want to be helped and I know that part of you is still that little girl that wants to be free of her fathers grasp. Only you've hidden yourself inside another prison of your own making."  
"Torchwood isn't a prison." She replied automatically before she'd realised she even said anything.

"No, it's a TV show that you think is real." He said coolly, "I'll see you tomorrow."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy alternated between playing with her plait and the strap around her wrist that declared her an inpatient of the hospital, she was in a car with not-Ianto (or Dr Williams) and Steve as well as one of the security guards and they still hadn't told her where she was going. It had been two day since the idea of a field trip had been mentioned and she had been surprised at how quickly it had happened. With the two men on either side of her it would be impossible to escape so she continued to fidget waiting and hoping for an opportune moment.  
It was only when the car pulled into the carpark that Lucy realised where they were and what Steve wanted to show her, her hands clenched into fists and she shook her head.  
"No. Not here. Anywhere but here." They had pulled up at a grave yard.

"This is important for you to see Lucy."

"No, I can't. Don't make me." She started to shake, the fear of what she was about to see was overpowering and she hadn't even got out of the car yet.

"We're not going to _make_ you do anything but I do think that it will be an important part of your recovery. Doctor Williams what's your opinion?"  
"I agree that it'll be good for you but you don't have to get out of the car. We can't force you to do something." Lucy had got over the fact that he had Ianto's face a while ago but still found it weird to hear a Southern English accent and not a Cardiff one. "This has to be your choice, just like taking the tablets was your choice."

She stared out past the gates of the grave yard at all the headstones, all the physical representations of peoples lives with only a few brief words summerising them. Each headstone signified a life lost, and more importantly the people that missed them over the years. Most of the ones at the front were old and damaged by time and weather but as you continued to look further back they were newer and more of them had flowers at their side or something to show that people were still coming on a semi-regular basis to pay their respects. She knew what they wanted her to see and that was why she was so scared, accepting that Becky might be dead was all very well in theory but apart from in her darkest moments she was doing her best to ignore it. Lucy was good at ignoring the things she didn't want to think about although Ianto normally forced her to think about things a bit, like how she had killed Dale on the night they got back together again. It had been a few weeks after the incident and before she was even allowed back in the hub let alone on field duty but what she had done had hit home, she might have threatened people before and had even shot a few in the leg and killed some alien but killing a human was a line she previously hadn't crossed. Once she realised that there was no going back she had spent most of the night curled around the toilet throwing up in disgust with herself. Her bullet wound that was no longer there ached in the cold and the memories that she was drudging up to ignore what was outside the car. The Torchwood part of her couldn't help but think this was the perfect time to try and run, the two men still in the car were talking to themselves while she came to a decision and the third man who was her extra supervision had got out for a smoke and had his back to her. If she wanted to run it wasn't going to get more opportune than this. All she needed to do was to get to a public area and a phone, or even just CCTV and the police. Anything to be noticed, something that would flash up in the Hub. But she couldn't take her eyes of the steel gates.

The gates themselves were relatively simply and understated but to Lucy they seemed larger than life and with shadows even larger than that. Each decorative curl seemed to be its own path to hell and the sun trying to shine through the shadows didn't make it any better and appeared to stop as soon as it hit the grass on the other side of the fence. All she wanted was to be curled up on her sofa in Cardiff with Ianto, in the house that they had just bought a 5 minute walk from the Bay. She wanted to his arm wrapped around her while she read a book and he watched a quiz show on the TV, a normal evening without Torchwood. She wouldn't even mind running through the sewers with Gwen in her ear and Jack at her side directing them to where the Weevils had escaped or sitting in the Hub trying to find another hint towards the Conspiracy and spit-balling a way to stop them and find out how insidious they were. Frankly at this moment she wouldn't mind being faced with a dalek again or a weeping angel, she'd even go into Madam Toussauds (and how stupid was it that after all of her experience with aliens she was still scared by waxwork figures?). Anything to not be staring at those gates and what exsited behind it. Because whatever she saw was going to be ingrained in her brain forever and would always be one of the first things she saw when she woke up. It would never be deleted and the only reason they would offer this to her would be if it was all real and Torchwood wasn't. They wouldn't have known what to put on the gravestone to convince her if this was all made up and part of a scheme to get into Torchwood.

Her hand was still shaking and she as much as she wanted to run those gates were pulling her in and asking to be opened. Besides if this was real and Becky was back there, she was all alone and ignoring it was letting her down. Again. This was the point of no return, they could drive away and she would never have to step in the graveyard ever but she would always wonder what if... and she could never let her sister down on purpose. She had made that promise the day a tiny pink bundle had been placed in her arms when she was 14, Becky had been crying for attention and the nurse had deftly picked her up and passed her over to her. She'd only been given Becky because her mum was asleep and her dad had left a few minutes previously. Lucy knew that had either of the adults been there or been awake she wouldn't have been given the crying baby, she was in her school uniform trying to get some homework done after all but this nurse had decided that she was the best one to calm down the new baby. Her arms had wrapped round the bundle, automatically positioning her so that Becky could see more of the room and still have her head supported. Becky had quietened down quickly and gurgled happily, from that moment when Lucy had been given responsibility to look after her little sister she had been wrapped around her little finger and would do anything for her. She had quietly promised to always be there for whatever she needed and that she would always look after her no matter what.

'_No matter what'. _Those three words repeated themselves around her head and she knew what she was going to have to do. She might have failed in that promise in the past and if Becky really was here then it was her fault for not waiting and holding her sister's hand as they crossed the road. But getting out of the car would be the first impossible step to trying to make it up to her. Her hands were still shaking and she clenched them into fists to try and get control of them again, remembering the breathing methods and distraction techniques Ianto used when she was coming out of a nightmare, ways of solidifying herself in the real world. Problem was if they were right then this nightmare was reality. She clenched and unclenched her hands a few more times before putting her right one on the door handle.  
The first step was the hardest, she couldn't let Becky down again.

She tried not to notice that Steve and Dr. Williams' conversation had quietened as they watched her carefully.

Pushing the door open was slightly easier than she thought it was going to be now she had made her decision. The gates were still large and imposing but the sun helped, the other side didn't look like the world of the dead anymore.

'_No matter what'_

Each step she took was easier than the last although she still wanted to run away back to the safety of the car and ignorance. She pushed the gate open and stepped through with a deep breath.

"Well done." Steve said, she hadn't even noticed the three men follow her. "Do you want me to lead or do you know where you're going?" Lucy shook her head not sure if she could say anything, her voice and all thoughts had left her. Steve gave her a small smile and sent a silent message over her head to Dr Williams but she didn't know what it said as her eyes had drawn themselves to a path that led to a side garden and a smaller gate. They must have seen where she was looking and nodded at her gently, Lucy allowed her legs to take her there and she walked like she was in a dream. Not noticing the world around her and unable to take her eyes off the smaller gate.

'_No matter what'_

She pushed the gate open without a second of doubt, still allowing her feet to lead her until she reached the third row back where she automatically turned off the path and to the left. Six gravestones down she knew what she was going to find and what she was dreading.

Lucy fell to her knees in front of the small book shaped headstone that was worse than all her nightmares combined. Her world had shrunk to that one piece of concrete

"'Becky Hannah Smith, 03/04/2000-25/01/2009, A loved and missed sister and daughter.

'She never gave up on magic, may the next life have everything she was looking for'"

Lucy couldn't take her eyes off the simple headstone or the words inscribed on it. She knew that she would never be able to forget this or deny it's truth. This was her sister's grave. Becky's last resting place and there were only two people on Earth who cared about it and one of them was her waste of a space father.

In years to come people would walk past and glance down and notice the small piece and the years dated on it that showed a life cut short, but they wouldn't know anything about a little girl full of joy even though the world around her tried to stifle it. They wouldn't know about her blonde hair and sparkling eyes, or her tendency to attempt to read books higher than her reading level because she wanted to know more magic. She couldn't tear her sister away from a book with fairies or magic; the pair of them both loved their fantasy but while Lucy's obsession was dragons or stories of the more urban type, Becky wanted anything to do with elves and fairies. All they would ever know was her birthday, her death day, that she was someone's sister and that she believed in magic. Four small details that didn't even show a 1000th of her sister's life. They couldn't know anything and she knew everything. She would never be able to forget it and there was never going to be anything new to learn. No infinite possibilities of what Becky could do with her life, places she could visit and roads she could walk. It was all just a dream, all just a stupid clichéd dream of hopes and wasted possibilities.

Lucy would never be able to tell anyone how long she had been sitting on the floor, she didn't even remember sitting on the floor in the first place or when she started crying. But eventually it came to an end, as all things must do, and she was once more aware of herself and her surroundings. The sun was in a completely different position in the sky and her supervision looked bored, Steve and Dr Williams were sitting on the bench and talking to each other but must have been keeping an eye on her as when she looked around their heads lifted and looked back over at her. She spotted Ianto staring at her shouting something from behind them that she couldn't hear but when she registered what she had seen he had disappeared. Lucy looked back down at the gravestone that signified her sister and looked up again, Ianto wasn't there.

Obviously.

Ianto was never there because Ianto was simply a character in a TV show that she liked, he didn't exist, hadn't fallen in love with her and helped knock down the walls she had built. She was simply seeing things, another symptom of her illness. Of her brain refusing to cooperate with the knowledge of her sister's death and shutting down instead.

"I love you Becks." Lucy whispered. "I'm sorry I fucked up so badly." She kissed her hand and placed it on her sister's name before pushing herself onto her feet. There was a brief wobble as her legs had cramped underneath her and she regained feeling in them again, Dr Williams was suddenly at her side and grabbed her arm to steady her. She pulled her arm away the instant he moved to touch her nearly overbalancing but staying upright.

"I don't _need _any help. I can stand up by myself. I'm ready to leave now." Her jaw stuck out as she spoke and pulled the walls back up around her, she had lost Becky and Ianto in one go. Her sister and her lover, one was dead and the other one was simply a figment of her imagination. How pathetic was that, the man she was in love with never existed, she had made him all up and even then she had nearly lost him more than once because of her stubbornness.

It was time to face the music and keep doing what she did best, find a way to keep going. She had to learn to let go of Torchwood and live in reality, no matter how much she didn't like it.

"398. " She said with a sigh, it was only a minor code - a voice activated one that opened both the lower cells and the storage rooms that held the paperwork from Torchwood 2 that still hadn't been dealt with. But it was one that only she and Jack knew, and even if the others ever found out about it (writing 'Silver Rhea' in his notebook had not been one of the Captain's smartest moves) they couldn't use it anyway. Jack had shoved them in there as he didn't want UNIT getting access to Torchwood technology or any information but also didn't want a reminder of what had happened. Just like when she had made the decision to open the car door to walk into the graveyard so she wouldn't let Becky down the first step was the hardest. It still felt wrong to say the code outside of the Hub even though it had such limited access. She had spent so long working on refining the Torchwood Secrets Act to allow for family members to be informed as to what they did that the idea of secrecy had been drilled into her. Not that she hadn't already been a very private and secret person. She wasn't ready to completely lose Torchwood and say or write down any of the main override codes (even though those ones now needed iris recognition at the minimum) that could cause security risks but she had to start somewhere. Take small steps. It was time to stop believing in magic and grow up.

Lucy refused to acknowledge the three men as they walked back to the car and drove back to the hospital. She still felt numb from what she had seen and the crying session after it. She was able to notice things that she hadn't spotted before, Steve had cigarette marks between his fingers and had cut himself shaving this morning, the strap on her wrist that declared her an inpatient seemed a brighter shade of red and was chaffing. The world around her felt more real, like seeing Becky's grave and admitting to herself that this was reality had made it so.

**A/N: The reviews I've had on this story line have all been good so I'm glad you seem to be enjoying this even if I am ****apparently****breaking your heart as well. ****Therefore the only way to respond to that is to give you this chapter! *evil grin***

**Just like last week I've got next weeks done but no further than that. My aim is to have at least finished writing it by the beginning of November as I'm doing NaNo again this year. However if I don't manage it you'll have to wait for a month as I'm not going to have the time to write Lucy. (Sorry in advance. I hope its not going to happen but I thought I'd warn you now)**

**I will see you again next week.**

**Rea**


	75. Chapter 75 - Where is she?, Part 4

**A/N: Enjoy the next part of this chapter. This should answer your questions.**

Ianto paced up and down the medical bay while he waited for Martha to turn up, when Lucy had slept in that morning he hadn't been worried. But when he was unable to get any response from her even when he had removed the duvet and shaken her he started to get more concerned. He knew she was still alive as he could feel her pulse and see her light breathing but that was it. He had called Jack who had brought some of the equipment in. Who had able to confirm that Lucy was physically ok but neither of them had been able to wake her up, at which point Martha had been called and they had been instructed to use the collapsible stretcher that was kept in the SUV to get Lucy into the hub, hook up an IV and keep an eye on her until she could get there and run more in depth tests to try and find out what was wrong.

"She'll be ok, Ianto." Gwen had tried to reassure him, Jack had called her to let her know what had happened and she had insisted on coming in even though they had all been given the day off to get over the attack from the Alvainens. Ianto didn't say anything just turned round and continued to pace, if Lucy was awake she'd be making some stupid sarcastic comment about how Gwen shouldn't be there. But that was the problem, Lucy wasn't awake and that showed no signs of changing. All he could do was wait until Martha turned up and hope that she had answers while Jack searched the archives for all the information they had on the Alvainens to see if there was anything that they missed that could have caused this. Normally Ianto would have at least made a token effort to complain about Jack being let lose in his archives with only a vague idea what he was looking for but he just didn't care about that today and continued to pace._  
_The cog door opened, causing Ianto to spin round where he was standing as Martha rushed into the hub and towards the medbay. He absently thought that Gwen must have opened up the tourist office as Martha had given back her key when she last visited.

"How is she?" The dark skinned doctor asked as she put her bag down  
"No change. It's as though she's still asleep." Gwen replied. Except it wasn't as though Lucy was asleep, she wasn't a quiet sleeper. Lucy fidgeted a lot and was beset by nightmares, this was as though someone had taken them all away and had left her a shell of herself.

"Martha..." Ianto's voice croaked, he couldn't lose Lucy like he had lost Lisa.

"I'll do everything I can and more Ianto. I promise." Martha said, glancing up at him with a warm but worried smile. "Killing the boss is normally a bad idea." Ianto tried to smile back, he knew that she would do everything she could to help and he trusted her but his eyes were drawn back to the sight of his girlfriend lying on the bed, not moving. "Why don't you go tell Jack I'm here while I start running some tests? Gwen can you help me?"

They both moved automatically to their assigned positions, Ianto going down to his archives and Gwen going down the steps to help Martha find out what was wrong. It pained Ianto to leave them but he knew that there was nothing he could do to help and he felt better now that he knew that Lucy was receiving some form of medical treatment. He couldn't help wishing it was Owen though, the doctor might have been a sarcastic drunk git but he knew Lucy's medical issues better. But wishing didn't make it so, the medic had died – twice – and Martha was the next best thing. Lucy trusted her enough to share her medical file in case something like this happened and they had plenty of her blood in stock in case a transfusion was needed.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"What can you tell us Martha?" Jack asked as they all sat around in the main hub, normally they would have had this conversation in Jack's office or in the conference room but none of them wanted to go too far away from Lucy.

"From what I can tell physically she's fine apart from the fact that she's in some kind of enforced coma. Her brain is still working, and she responded to some outside stimuli but it was weak."  
"But she's ok."  
"She will be if we can pull her back. Like I said, there's no reason for her to be in this state. He didn't hit her head yesterday did she? There's no mark or anything that I could see."  
"Not that I knew about but then I was dead for a lot of it. Gwen, Ianto?"  
"No. Although Lucy doesn't always tell us when she's hurt."  
"Apart from being tired she was fine last night." Ianto confirmed. "It seemed like a run of the mill attack, although you did say it should have been harder Jack."  
"From what I'd heard of them I was surprised that they seemed to give up."  
"Well what have you heard of them?" Martha asked the question they were all thinking, "maybe if we know more we might be able to work out what they did and then how to reverse it."

"I don't remember much but I know that the Time Agency was interested in them as they mostly policed themselves and were happy with their own planet and not seeing the universe due to a mild telepathy that meant they shared a group mind. But every race has weirdos. I think the agency wanted to learn more about their telepathy and how to use it, or misuse it as the case may have been with them."  
"Telepathy?"

"Yeah, why?"  
Gwen looked around at the rest of them who hadn't caught up with her train of thought.

"You didn't think to warn us that these people were psychic?"  
"It's only a race psychic thing, not needing speech because they could read each others minds sort of thing. It's why the weirdos are so good at attacking because no one else can interrupt their communications."  
"Lucy is in a coma, trapped inside her own mind and they can read minds. What's inside Lucy's mind that isn't in ours?"  
"Access to all of Torchwood." Jack breathed catching on.

"Exactly. Jack you were dead which meant Lucy took control, if they wanted access to Torchwood the best way in is through her."

"So they forced her into her own mind. That would fit with some of my results, it's definitely not a natural coma."

"How do we get her back?" Ianto's question brought them all back to reality with a bump. Just because they knew why Lucy was in a coma didn't mean they were any closer to getting her back.

"First I need to send a message out to them, like I said they police themselves which means they'll be coming to see what happened to them and how much damage they caused. Martha you said that she responded to outside stimuli, any chance we can use that to wake her up?"

"No. You shouldn't wake people who are sleep walking and it's similar to that, it can cause a lot of damage, plus her brain will be forced to just incorporate it into what ever she thinks is happening."  
"Could we send one of us in there?" Ianto asked. "We sent an image of Tosh back in time through Tommy's mind, what if one of us goes into Lucy's mind to pull her out."  
"Good idea, except your not doing it." Jack said forcefully.  
"Why not?"  
"You're too close to her and have no idea what you're going to see. What if she's living happily with someone else?"  
"What if she's not? None of us know what she's thinking, what they're making her think to try and get her to give up Torchwood. Gwen can't do it because she'd never be able to persuade Lucy to give up anything, Lucy would be more likely to do the opposite just to spite her – no offense."  
"None taken."  
"Martha can't do it because she'd be needed to keep an eye on the medical side of things and if you really think I'm going to let you into Lucy's mind you're madder than I thought."  
"He has got a point Jack."

"Yes thank you Martha." Jack stood up and looked over at the medbay where Lucy was still lying silently attached to a range of machines all measuring something different. When Lucy had first appeared nearly three years ago he hadn't known what to think of the fangirl, she knew more about his past than he was comfortable with as well as his immediate future. But as time went one she had become an important part of his team and he had just as much pride in her as he did in any of the others. It also helped that on days were he couldn't stop thinking of his travels with the Doctor he had someone to speak to about it all, even if she didn't like Rose. She had continued to grow as part of Torchwood and he was happy for her and Ianto when they finally stopped dancing around each other and got together, even if he had nearly screwed it up for them.

He looked back over at Ianto's pleading face and sighed, Ianto did have a point. Him going into Lucy's mind wasn't a good idea but it was the best one they currently had. And if anyone could succeed in ridding Lucy of the hold that the alvainens had over her and pull her back to reality it was Ianto. The pair of them may have had their ups and downs but they still stood stronger and had been stronger still since Lucy returned after she had run away. They had even bought a house together, a place which was _theirs._

"Ok." He nodded slowly "Ok, but I want Martha keeping an eye on you the whole time and we do this slowly and timed. We'll send you in there for a couple of minutes and then pull you out before deciding if we should repeat it again. Ok?" Ianto nodded knowing he wasn't going to get a better deal.

"Ok. When do you want to do it?"  
"How quickly can you get things set up Martha?" Jack asked by way of a response.

"Give me half an hour to go over the notes and files that Owen wrote about the device and then I'll let you know. I'd guess about an hour maximum though, can we bring an extra chair in their for Ianto to sit on and be hooked up to the machines as well?"  
"I can do that." Gwen agreed, glad to be able to help.

"Ok well we'll meet in the medbay in an hour."

Now they had a plan and something to do everyone felt happier although it would be even better when Lucy woke up and they knew she was safe. Ianto was the first to leave and returned to watching Lucy and his pacing.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They all stood around the medbay as Martha hooked Ianto up to the machines that were measuring his heart rate as well as his brain activity. The screens that showed Lucy's were showing a slow but steady heart beat and overactive brain activity. If nothing else they knew for certain that she was thinking and there was no chance of her being brain dead, which gave them all hope that things could be sorted and brought back to normal.

"Are you sure about this Ianto?" Jack asked. "This could be dangerous."  
"I know."  
"You might not like what you see."

"I know."  
"I can do this instead."  
"I know Jack!" The welshman snapped and winced as Martha place the cannula. "I know that this might not work or that it could be dangerous. But I also know that Lucy is intensely private and that if anyone had to go into her mind she'd prefer it to be me rather than you or Gwen."  
"He's got a point." Gwen backed him up from the steps.

"Not helping Gwen." Jack replied not taking his eyes off Ianto and Martha.

"I'm doing this Jack." Ianto said firmly.

"Ok, but we'll build up how long you're in there. You'll start with a minute."  
"A minute? You said 5 earlier"

"60 seconds. Don't make me change my mind again, all you need to do is get an understanding of whatever fantasy they are making her believe so we can work out the best way to wake her up. Ok?"

"Ok." Ianto nodded knowing he couldn't win this particular battle. "Martha?"  
"Right. I'm going to link you up to Lucy with this," she picked up one of the many cables "and then inject you with this." She pointed at something else. "Then according to Owen's research that'll knock you out and because you're connected you'll see what she's seeing."

"Do you think it will work?"  
"I've got no reason to think it won't." She replied not quite catching his eye.

"Ok" Ianto nodded again and took a deep breathe, steadying himself. "Do it."

Martha looked up at Jack who gave a final nod of agreement before connecting the couple with the different cables, attached to their heads. Finally she picked up the alien artifact and Jack got the stop watch ready.

"This'll probably be cold and feel weird." She warned  
"Just do it." He hissed as she injected whatever it was into him and the cold feeling leaked up his arm and around my body.

"60 seconds and counting." Jack reminded him. "Martha, be ready to wake him up again."

Ianto tried to reply but his tongue felt heavy in his mouth and he just shut his eyes, the last thing he saw was Jack pressing the button on the top of the stop watch.

_When Ianto opened his eyes again it took him a couple of his vital seconds to get used to the sun and to understand what he was seeing. He was in a cemetery and there was no doubt that we world around him felt real, he could feel and see the dew on the grass and the age on the headstones. _

"_Lucy?" He called out. "Cariad? Come on Ianto." He mumbled to himself when it was obvious that Lucy wasn't going to respond to him, he couldn't even see her so shouting wasn't going to get him anywhere. _

"_Think about it, why would they make her think she's in a cemetery?"_

_He saw some movement in the distance and started to run towards it, aware his time was running out. He had no idea how time passed in Lucy's mind compared to the outside world but he knew that Jack wouldn't give him a second more of his allotted 60._

"_LUCY!" He spotted her as he continued to run, she was kneeling at a small headstone and had obviously been crying. Her plait was a mess and there were tear tracks running down her checks. Lucy looked like the world have been destroyed and she was one of the few survivors, the sparkle and fight in her eyes that he had fallen in love with had been extinguished and she looked like a ghost of herself. _

"_Oh god, Becks." He breathed and stumbled as he realised what grave she was at and the only reason Lucy would ever stop fighting. "IT'S NOT REAL." He shouted in the hope he would get through to her. He could feel the world around him start to disappear more than see it happening. "I'll get you out of here Cariad. I promise." He said and something flickered in her eyes as she looked up, as though she might have heard or seen him but he couldn't tell._

Ianto's eyes snapped open and the walls of the medbay and the faces of his team were around him again. Jack was holding his arms down while Gwen had hers on his legs, firmly keeping him in place. He vagauley supposed that with his running to try and get to Lucy it could have dislodged the wires and the connection between the pair of them that Martha had so carefully set up.

"It's ok Ianto, you're back." Jack tried to reassure him but Ianto was too busy shrugging him off and trying to catch his breath.

"I know what they're making her believe." He said as soon as he could, surprised by how much that had taken out of him. "We need to get her out of there. It's going to kill her."

**A/N: Like I said at the top I hope this answers some of your questions and you no longer hate me for what I'm putting Lucy through. (Although I must admit I am tempted to add in a friend that looks like Tosh or Owen). **

**Anyway, now that none of you hate me I have a small admission to make. (I haven't written anything else on this yet and with NaNo around the corner I am going to desperately try to get it finish but I'm worried you may have to wait a month - unless I decide that to destress from NaNo I should write Lucy. Which is entirely feasible.) **

**Also something odd happened with the reviews last week. I got two emails with lovely reviews in them (thank you by the way your words mean a lot) and when I went to reply the reviews had disappeared. So if that was you I'm really sorry that I didn't reply. But I will reply to any reviews sent this week! **

**Thanks again and I'm sorry for the long A/N, please do reply and I will do my best to give you an update next week**

**Rea**


	76. Chapter 76 - Where am I? - Part 5

**A/N: Sorry it's a short filler, but I literally wrote this at work last night. I hope you still enjoy it though**

Lucy would have loved to say that after she had been forced to face the truth of reality that everything got easier. That Torchwood didn't haunt her in her dreams as well as her waking moments. The sad fact was she had got used to Becky not being there, being stuck in another universe felt just as final as death but there was also hope attached to it. Now every time she thought of Becky it was accompanied by a punch in the gut and the thought of that gravestone. It hurt but she was able to keep going, the loss of Torchwood and Ianto was hitting her just as hard. She had got over Becky's death by pushing herself to be the best damn agent possible (which had eventually led to her being in charge, something that she was still proud of). Getting over Torchwood was difficult and no matter how much she told herself that it wasn't real and she had made it all up it didn't change anything.

She would glance at the calendar and notice it was coming up to Mica's birthday and absently wonder if Ianto had got his niece anything and start thinking about what to get the little girl before remembering that it didn't matter because Ianto didn't exist. Mica didn't exist so worrying about what to get her for her birthday wasn't valid, and yet she couldn't stop thinking if she was enjoying Brownies and what badge she was currently working on. She remembered the conversation with Rhiannon about Mica joining the guiding movement and her talking to Mica about the few happy memories she had of her childhood and of Becky's. Both of them had loved being part of Guiding and their dad had managed to be sober on the day that Becky made her promise which had meant a lot to both of them. At the time he had promised the pair of them it was the first step for him to get his life back under control, Lucy had - foolishly - believed him even though he'd made the same promise many times before. It had seemed that he meant it and managed to stay sober for two weeks until payday when he went back to the bar. Lucy had vowed to never trust any promise from him again. She couldn't help but feel bad as the day that had been penciled for Mica's promise ceremony came and went, which she knew was stupid. She felt like she was not only grieving her sister but also the family she had made for herself and had been accepted into. Her and Ianto were very different people to Rhiannon and Johnny but they were still part of the same family. Secretly she had loved seeing Rhiannon nag Ianto about something and then make a teasing comment to Lucy; it wasn't a perfect family, they kept secrets from each other and Rhiannon and Johnny still didn't know what they did for a living and got annoyed when they had to cancel plans at short notice or leave halfway through dinner. But it was still a fairly happy family and she had been accepted into it. She was Aunty Lucy to Ianto's niece and nephew and that meant more than she could ever explain.

And yet she was simply grieving for a figment of her imagination, and what did that say about her? She hadn't come up with a place that she was safe to retreat to. She had made up a world where she had been shot, had a roman sword slice her neck and was forced to face her own mortality most weeks. How screwed up was her mind that she couldn't even imagine a world where she wasn't at risk?

Her days seemed to blur together, with tablets and continued sessions with Steve who still seemed too interested in Torchwood. She didn't understand why he kept asking questions about it and it got her rattled, she had accepted (logically) that Torchwood wasn't real and it was simply a way for her broken mind to deal with the loss of Becky. The fact that he kept nagging her about divulging the codes and talking about the hub and the people she had worked with jarred, none of those things were important and just made her cling to them tighter - an action which she knew was stupid. Giving him the codes didn't mean anything because they were simply strings of letters and numbers that gave access to nowhere, she could understand the logic about it still having a claim on her but surely that was up to her to deal with.

Lucy at times felt like she was a child being told they were too old for an imaginary friend or a security blanket.

It didn't help that the memories refused to leave and Ianto had started popping up every day or so. No one else seemed to see him and she convinced herself it was just her mind struggling to let go. She wasn't the only person locked up for their own good with schizophrenia, Christian also saw things except his things spoke to him (granted they kept telling him he was useless and should just commit suicide to stop being a burden on the National Health Service), she wasn't that far gone yet. Except she couldn't bring herself to tell Steve about Ianto popping up, she could tell he was trying to speak to her but she could never read his lips as he was always too far away, although she vaguely thought he was getting closer.

"I really am mad. He's not real, he can't be getting closer." She muttered as she grabbed another book from the shelves of the library, there was a new series of Doctor Who starting tonight with more of Matt Smith's doctor but Steve and not-Ianto had decided that she wasn't ready for that yet. So while the rest of the ward were all sitting in the lounge ready to watch it she was in the library picking out yet another book to try and distract herself. She didn't really care anymore, it had been her and Becky's thing and without Becky she didn't want to watch it anyway, maybe that would change one day. Maybe one day she would be able to enjoy the things they used to do together again but that day was a long way off. The librarian gave her an odd look as she walked over to the desk to let her know which ones she was taking. As she was a long term patient and still thought to potentially be a risk to herself she had to have the books she was reading vetted. Not that she was quite sure what they thought she was going to find in the books to set her off again, it was hardly like she was reading about aliens.

"Are you ok dear?" The elderly librarian asked, Lucy wasn't quite sure why the woman was volunteering in a mental health hospital, if any of the patients kicked off in the library she'd hardly be able to protect herself and others. She had already worked out half a dozen of different ways to incapacitate her and to take her security pass.  
"I'm fine." Lucy replied with a small smile, mentally trying to shut up the bit of her brain that was wired to Torchwood and look at things sideways. She had never noticed the librarian eat anything and she appeared to be a stereotypical old lady who somehow made Lucy feel alert and ready for danger. There was something about her that wasn't quite right.

"Let me just have a look at those books for you."

Ianto had appeared again, closer than ever before. This time he was on the other side of the library door and she couldn't help but look over at him. Like you can't stop looking at a car crash, you know that you shouldn't but your eye is still drawn to it. Lucy knew - logically - that he wasn't real but that didn't change the fact that the sight of him still made her smile before she recognised what she was seeing couldn't be real.

She knew instantly that it was Ianto she was seeing and not doctor Williams, (who would have a reason to be wandering around the corridors after all). They may have the same face at first glance but Ianto was different. He was littered with small scars that were only just visible if you knew where to look (it was part of the reason he wore suits to hide the scars left on him from Canary Wharf) but the main difference was his eyes. Ianto's eyes were older and showed that he had looked into the abyss and the abyss had looked back at him, they also showed a completely different range of emotion. Currently she could see the fear in them, fear for her.

"Please go away" She begged.

"What's that my dear?" The librarian said looking over at where Lucy was looking. "Are you seeing something?"  
"No." Lucy forced her eyes to pull away from Ianto's and back at the kindly old woman who was passing the books back over to her. "No, I'm just talking to myself that's all."  
"Well if you're sure dear. Here you go, I expect I'll be seeing you again in a couple of days when you've gone through that lot."  
"Not like I have anything else to do." Her comment was only half joking, Steve and Dr. Williams may constantly be saying they wanted to get her back to a point where she could leave and become an outpatient and eventually not a patient at all but it felt like she was being kept prisoner rather than learning how to face the world again. Being escorted from one room to another didn't help, even if she knew why they did it. If she was still concerned about their intentions she would be suspicious but whenever she found herself thinking that something wasn't right she would remember that day at the graveyard. "Bye."

As she left the library two people fell into step next to her, the security guard that was escorting her back to her room and had to use his pass to open the doors, and Ianto. This was the first time that he had done that and she couldn't stop herself glancing up and catching his eye. For a split second it was like nothing had changed and they were simply walking together somewhere, Ianto smiling down at her and her hand immediately stretching to grab his. The moment was broken when the security guard swore as his keycard didn't open the door on the first attempt, Lucy pulled her hand back like she had been burnt and Ianto's smile fell. She almost reached for his hand again but stopped herself, he wasn't there so there was no point grasping at thin air. She sighed and forced herself to focus on the weight of the books in her hands and the reality around her and not the sight of her imaginary boyfriend next to her. Ianto didn't go away the whole time they walked down the corridor but she kept her eyes facing forward try to ignore feeling of his eyes on her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"She noticed me this time." Ianto said as he was once again pulled out of Lucy's mind. He had almost got used to 'waking up' with Gwen and Jack holding him down while Martha checked over him and Lucy to make sure he hadn't done any damage. Each time he got closer and got more of an understanding of what the alvianiens were doing to her. He watched the constant knocks against her confidence and her simultaneously curl back into herself and standing tall as she tried to rebuild the wall around herself.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked as he passed over a mug of coffee that Ianto had prepared.

"She told me to go away." Ianto replied, sitting up and taking the mug. "I'm pretty sure."  
"Well at least that's something." Gwen said trying to keep up her cheery disposition. "It's an improvement."  
"She's been in a coma for half a week." Ianto snapped, his concern about his girlfriend overriding his need to keep a polite and professional front at work. "I've spent the past three days trying to reach her through her own mind while an alien race is making her give up Torchwood codes by convincing her that she went mad and made us all up when her sister died. Lucy thinks I'm a hallucination and doesn't want me there. But it's an improvement."  
"Calm down Ianto." Martha walked over from the screen that showed Lucy's vital signs as well as her brain activity. "We're all trying our best. There was a definite spike in Lucy's brain when you went in."  
"What does that mean?" Ianto was suddenly tired and his annoyance at Gwen slipped away. He hadn't gone home since Lucy had been brought into the hub, in case something happened during the night. He had called Rhiannon to let her know that Lucy was ill and they wouldn't be there for Sunday lunch as planned. It was one of the few times that he hated lying to his sister and wished that Lucy had finished her rewrite of the OSA (she had went the second draft to the royal family just before this whole mess had started). It wasn't that everyone at Torchwood wasn't worried, because they were, but they were also treating this (correctly) as an attack on Torchwood when at that moment all he wanted was someone to just be worried. He wanted to be able to tell Rhiannon that Lucy was in a coma and they weren't sure if she was going to wake up, Lucy had made a difference in his sisters life almost as much as a difference she had made in his. But telling Rhiannon would mean explaining more as well as having to come up with a reason for why they couldn't visit her.

"It means that she's still fighting. We'll get her back Ianto."  
"Go home Ianto. Get some sleep." Jack ordered.

"I'll sleep in the recovery rooms."

"Go **home."** He repeated. "We can and will keep an eye on her, go and sleep properly. I'm hoping for a reply from the alvianiens tonight anyway. Maybe with their help we can break the barrier. But you're not trying again today. Gwen can you drive him?"

"Not a problem. Come on Ianto, let's get you home."


	77. Chapter 77 - Where am I part 6?

SURPRISE! I really am sorry I disappeared for so long. I'm so close to finally finishing this chapter that I thought I'd finally give you an update and put pressure on myself to finish in the next couple of days

I did however win NaNo so well done me! (Plus I've met Ianto!)

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I don't understand why you keep pushing me to tell you the codes." Lucy said having finally given up with being patient with the staff. "They don't matter, you keep saying Torchwood doesn't exist and yet at the same time you want me to tell you a string of random numbers and letters that would only be important if Torchwood _did_ exist." She was slumped in the chair in Steve's office for their normal session which had gone down to every other day rather than daily. Allegedly that was because she was improving but it just felt like she was in limbo more due to the time she was left with her own thoughts. "How is me telling you nonsense going to help me get out?"  
"The idea is that way they don't have a hold on you." Steve said calmly, "Why is this annoying you so much?"  
"I just want to leave and get on with my life." Lucy replied. "That means putting Ianto and Torchwood behind me."  
"The fact that you are admitting that Torchwood and Ianto are not real is a great improvement. How are you doing with that by the way?"  
"I'm surviving."  
"It can't be easy though?"  
"Having to be reminded that my sister is dead is not easy. In contrast to that it's not difficult without Ianto and Torchwood. I am bored of you asking the same questions over and over again, surely that's the way that madness lies." He gave her a look at the phrase but didn't say anything. "Can't we just accept that the past is the past and move on?"  
"Do you think we can?"  
"I think if I stay in the past I'll stay here and I'm not doing that. My new goal in life has become to finish the library, how pathetic is that?"  
"It would be impressive."  
"It would be a waste of my time, no matter how good the books are." She snapped at him and then flinched as she noticed Ianto appear in the corner of the room. To her 'trained' eye it was clear that he was tired, his suit wasn't quite as well ironed as normal and the bags around his eyes were more noticeable as well as the fact his hair was more of a mess. If she had seen him like this in the hub she would have sent him back home to bed immediately telling him to take the rest of the day off and come back in when he was more human. It had only happened a couple of times and she had had to resort to locking him out of the system to make him leave. She had at one point threatened to do the same to Jack after he had been killed more than three times in one day but had just laughed it off and promised to get an early night providing he could find someone to tuck him in. Lucy's face hardened as she forced herself out of the memory and to look either directly at Steve or at the walls around him rather than at Ianto. The problem she was having was that it all felt so real, the good bits as well as the bad and the minor and unimportant. It felt as real to her as the time before Torchwood when she was taking Becky out into Brighton every week to make sure they stayed away from their dad and spent their time enjoying whatever free even was on that weekend and trying out more fish-and-chip shops. She was sure that delusions and hallucinations weren't supposed to feel that way and the small part of her that was still clinging to the idea that this was false and Torchwood was real put all it's hope into that. If Ianto wasn't real and she had made him up then why would she see him at anything less than his best or even his normal. Why would she hallucinate him in such a state.  
"Lucy?" Steve called and her eyes darted back to him as she tried to stop thinking about the life she had lost, even if it had never been real in the first place.  
"Sorry, I was... I thinking."  
"About?"  
"About Becky and before all this. Anyway, isn't it your job to help me focus on the future. What's the first step to me leaving this place?"  
"We want to make sure you're stable before we start doing anything else."  
"I'm stable!" She snapped at him, he gave her a knowing look and she couldn't miss the fact that Ianto did the same thing. "Sorry," she apologised, "I'm just... bored of this place and not getting any further. I want to leave and get on with my life."  
"Last time we lowered your medication you fell back to the beginning again fighting us because you thought we'd kidnapped you." Steve was clearly trying to pacify. "We're just trying to take things slowly to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again."  
"So how long are we talking then?"  
"Let's see where we are in a couple of weeks to a month before we do anything."  
"A month? A whole fucking month..."  
"At the longest. We are just trying to do what's best for you in the future, maybe if you had someone to live with when you left it would be different. Have you thought..."  
"I'm not living with _him_." She spat knowing what he was hinting at. "I would prefer to stay locked up here than ever see him again."  
"He's been sober for nearly 6 months now. The shock of what happened to Becky forced him to look at himself."  
"Good for him but I still don't care. I refuse to see him let alone live with him. I am no longer someone he can punch around, I will do the same back to him and I'd be sent back here anyway because he would be in hospital the second he mentioned her name." Lucy's voice was cold and her eyes promised retribution.  
"Very well, if that is what you think." He clearly didn't think that the conversation or the idea was over but didn't bring it up again so she would have time to calm down and think logically about it. Lucy couldn't stop her eyes flicking back up to Ianto and his tired face, she caught his eye and as he opened his mouth to say something he flickered out of existence like a hologram disappearing. Part of her was glad to see him go and used that as more proof that she was just imagining him but another, slightly smaller part, was sad to see him go and wished he could take her with him out of this hell hole. Torchwood might not be real but it didn't change the fact that she was happier and had friends there. Since Tosh and Owen's death she had grown closer to Gwen as well and they're sniping at each other had become more like friendly banter now that animosity behind it had left.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The Torchwood team, and Martha, were all sat in the medbay for their meeting instead of the conference room or Jack's office like they would have done before Lucy had fallen into a coma.

"There's only so much I can do." Martha was explaining pointing at the charts that showed Lucy's brain activity. "There's no doubt that her body is still running but apart from the spikes when Ianto goes in, and there is a clear reaction to him, it doesn't change the fact that the activity is getting lower. It's been two weeks and I don't think she'll last another two. We need to get her out before we lose her."

Ianto had known what Martha was going to say, they all had but hearing it had still made an impact, they had a time limit now. Lucy was lying there in the middle of all of them, her face pale but looking like she was asleep if not for the wires that were attached to her.  
"So what do we do?" He asked not looking away from his girlfriend

"I've made contact with some Aliviens who say they'll do what they can to hep. They owe me one anyway"  
"But until then?"  
"Until then we keep doing what we are and hope that we can weaken the hold they have over her. If we can get them to boost the signal so you can talk to Lucy we should be in with a chance to pull her back."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It was only in the dark moments where Lucy was alone in her room with only her own thoughts for company that Lucy allowed herself to dream and to hope. She had been here for at least couple of months, days were starting to merge into each other at this point which meant she was losing track of time. But no matter how much she tried she couldn't let herself fully give up Torchwood, Ianto's continual appearance wasn't helping matters. She had been trying Steve's suggestion of saying the secure codes but hadn't found the strength to say the really important ones yet, no matter how much she tried the words got stuck in her throat.

She rolled over in the bed and wasn't surprised to find Ianto standing over her.

"If you're going to keep stalking me, you may as well sit down." She murmured not expecting anything but was tired enough of the world to speak to the hallucination. Ianto blinked at her and sat down awkwardly at the edge of the bed as though he wasn't quite sure if it was actually there. "Huh, I didn't think you could order hallucinations to do things." Ianto tried to speak but nothing came out. "And of course I imagine you to be unable to speak." She turned so she was looking at the ceiling instead of his suited form next to her.

"The problem is, you're not real and Becky is dead. I know I should just move on and forget you and move forward for Becks, they want me to talk to Dad again and maybe go and live him." She rolled back over so she was staring into his eyes and could see the horror and anger in them at the mention of the man who had made her life a living hell. "I should probably tell them that I'm hallucinating too, but then they'll want me on more drugs and even though I know you're not real I don't want to give you up. I just... things were easier when I was just fighting aliens. I knew who I was then, now... I have no clue who I am. It's like when I ran away except this time I really did fail at being Becky's sister so I can't go back to being that again. I wish my madness had extended to auditory hallucinations, then I'd be able to hear you. I'm not sure if talking to myself is better or worse if I add in my imaginary boyfriend." Lucy looked at the posters on the wall and the pictures of her and Becky as well as the one of her and her parents when she was a child.

"I can understand going mad with Beck's death, but I didn't think it extend to knowing a city like I know Cardiff, to knowing you, to imagine falling like I did, feeling every cell being pulled apart. I remember holding Tosh's body as she died in my arms, Owen's anger at dying again, shouting at Sam when he said I didn't love Becky cause I didn't try to get back to her as well as the hours of training with the knives as well as Cecil shooting me. I drew a sun in my own blood while you spilled your heart out to me. I just... I don't think I could have made all that up. Surely if it was all just in my madness I would have been able to save them. It's been months, I want to be used to this now and yet part of me still calls Cardiff home. We'd just bought a new house. An actual house that was ours and I haven't even spent one night there. You'd think I'd wait until that moment to come back to reality. I want to go home Yan, I'm just not sure where that is..." She turned to look at him again. "And of course just as I'm about to admit that I want you to be real you disappear. That shows me doesn't it." She laughed harshly at herself but didn't let her eyes move off where he had been sitting and imagining him there again, only this time they were in their new house and he was out of his suit and passing over a coffee while they both enjoyed a rare day off.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I was so close, she's doubting them." Ianto didn't even bother taking the cables off as he sat up. "Just a couple more trips, I think I can get her out of there."  
"We can't send you in again today Ianto." Jack said sternly his voice showed there was no arguments but Ianto tried anyway.  
"Why not?"  
"Because ever time we send you in it's helping her but damaging you. I'm not going to save one member of my team by sacrificing another. You need to sleep and look after yourself."  
"But..."  
"But nothing. You might not like it but you know Lucy would say the same."  
"Lucy can't say anything." Ianto snapped.  
"And that is not my fault. Hopefully by tomorrow my contact will have got back to me, even if all he can do is bump the signal that's something. You're not going back into your girlfriend's mind today Ianto and that's final."  
"Fine." He pulled the wires off and walked out of the med-bay and down to the archives where he knew no one would follow him.

"I don't think he's happy with you." Martha said quietly as she tidied up.  
"I didn't think he would be." Jack replied. "I didn't want to tell him that tomorrow is the last chance."  
"He deserves to know."  
"I'd prefer to give him hope. Go home Martha, talk to that fiancée of yours. Keep that life outside of Torchwood, we at least owe Lucy that."  
"We owe it to her to save her life. What if I called the Doctor? You know he'd want to help."  
"Not yet. I want to keep him in reserve."  
"For how much longer Jack? Lucy doesn't have time for you to keep waiting."  
"I know" He looked down at his second in command. "I know."

A/N: Like I said at the top I AM sorry I've left you for so long. Please review anyway just so I know that you're still alive and I SHOULD have another chapter for you on Friday if not on Christmas day  
Rea


	78. Chapter 78 - Where am I? Part 7

"I honestly think you need this in your recovery." Steve said as Lucy looked at him with her arms stubbornly crossed against her chest. He had made the wise decision to not warn her in advance of what was about to happen. Her father was busy standing in the visiting room.  
"I don't want anything to do with him."  
"I'm not saying that your anger is misplaced. But even if all this does is help you put your past behind you. You need closure."  
"What I need is to get out of here and not see _him_ again." Lucy retorted. She was tired and hadn't seen Ianto for a week since he sat at her bedside. She hadn't realised how much that would have an impact on her mood, she had liked seeing him nearby even though she knew that he wasn't really there.  
"I'm only asking for you to be in there for half an hour and to actually talk to him. I'll be in the observation room."  
"What part of I never want to see him again don't you get?" She snapped  
"The part where you want out get out of here and facing your past is part of that."  
"I told you I'd rather stay here than see him."  
"All I'm asking for is half an hour, 30 minutes, that's it and I'll be watching and ready to jump in the entire time."  
Lucy looked through the observation glass again at the man pacing the room next door. His hair which she remembered as turning grey was now a lot lighter although there were still a few strands that stubbornly remained black. She had faced down daleks, had apparently mocked the Master to his face, talking to one human should not be the hardest thing she'd ever done. She played with her plait for a bit stalling for time and waiting for her courage to grow some more before she was ready to step into that room, her hand wavered above the door handle for a bit before it clasped it tightly and pushed it down.

Her dad looked up as Lucy Smith, second in command of all of Torchwood and defender of the Earth walked in.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto watched nervously as the pair of alvianiens bustled around Lucy in the medbay while he lay next to her waiting to once more be connected. It still felt weird thinking that he was going to be go inside Lucy's mind, no matter how many times he did it. He knew that what he was actually seeing was a prison that Lucy's conciousness had been placed in so they could try to get Torchwood's secrets out of her. He also knew that this was the last attempt, if after this he couldn't pull Lucy out they had no other option and he would be consigned to watching his girlfriend slowly die before she was placed in cold storage. This was it.  
He nodded at Martha as she placed the final connecting cable between the pair of them and injected him, this time as he felt the blackness take him he also felt the cold hand of the alvianien clasped tightly around his wrist.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"You wanted to talk, talk" Lucy said harshly using the same tone of voice she used to interrogate suspects. She never went full out 'bad-cop' it was easier to leave that to Jack, morally-ambiguous was more her style.  
"Lucy... I just..." He wrung his hands and gestured at the chairs. "Do you want to sit down?"  
"I'm fine thanks. If you've come here for forgiveness you can turn around and walk straight back out again."  
"I know I don't deserve it..."  
"Damn right you don't!" She could feel her temper rising and tried to stay calm, she was better than him and he didn't even deserve her anger. Not anymore. "Do you have any idea what hell you made my life?"  
"When your mother died..."  
"You weren't the only one who was left in the lurch. I lost my mum the same day you lost your wife. Except I was left holding the baby! _Your_ baby that you couldn't even look at anymore."  
"It was hard..." He tried again  
"It was hard for me too. I was 15, I was dealing with hormones and GCSEs and normal teenage things and I had no one to help me because you were dead just as much as her. Do you have any idea how long it took for me to get over it and to not hate Becky? I was 15!"  
"Lu please."  
"NO!" Her hands clenched into fists. "You don't get to call me that. Not any more, that's for family."  
"I'm your dad."  
"You're the sperm donor, my dad died years ago. _Dad_ taught me how to skim stones, you just taught me how to dodge things that were thrown at me." He shut her eyes to take a breath and even before she opened them she knew what she would see, she could feel Ianto standing next to her giving her silent strength knowing that this was her battle. When she did open them Lucy couldn't stop herself looking over at Ianto's dark green eyes and could feel herself drink in the support they showed her. It gave her the strength to keep talking.

"You're not my father, my father wouldn't have sent me to deal with my own injuries. He would have taken me to A&amp;E when I slipped on the bottom step holding a two year old and landed on beer bottles. I was skimming money off you not stones into the sea, you never once wished Becky happy birthday or Merry Christmas. I went to her school events and made excuses for why you couldn't be at parents evening and for why she never drew pictures of you. What's her favourite colour? What book was she reading that day? What's the name of her teddy bear?" It was clear he didn't know the answers to any of her questions and the scorn was clear in her voice. "I'll give you an easy one, what was the name of her imaginary friend? What online course was I doing? You don't know anything about your children so how can you be a father."  
"Lucy I'm sober now I want to get to know you..." He lurched forward and grabbed at her arms, she shoved at him, pushing him back down onto the sofa, her hand clasped Cecil automatically.  
"Do it again. I dare you." She hissed. "I'll show you exactly what you taught me."  
"Lucy." The Welsh accent pierced the silence and her anger, she didn't allow herself to turn round and see him, not now she knew she had heard his voice.  
"Lucy please." Her father whispered.  
"Shut up!" She snapped at him gesturing with Cecil for him to stay quiet, it was only then she realised that she was holding her much beloved gun. "No... no please no. It's not real, Torchwood wasn't real."  
"Lucy... she liked dark purple but you prefer sparkling blue like the sea and her eyes." Ianto started answering her questions and slowly taking a step forward. No matter how much she didn't want to see him, to see further proof of her madness she couldn't stop herself and looked up at him, begging for him to be real and not a figment of her shattered mind. "She was reading The Worst Witch and you went out and bought the entire series and read them over and over again to her when she was lying in the hospital bed. Her teddy bear is Oliver short for Ollie cause that was the name of your friend who bought it for her when she was born before he moved up north. Her imaginary friend was Luecky as it was a mix of your names and you were doing an English Lit course."  
"I made you up that's why you know that." She whispered.  
"You told me, that's how I know." He disagreed and took another step forward. "You're holding Cecil, Lu, how else would that happen?"  
"I could be hallucinating that too..."  
"Lucy?" Her father said quietly but she ignored him, as well as Steve how had just rushed into the room. "Lucy please... come back to us..."  
"You think you can make up that weight in your hand and all scuffs on the side that you never got out no matter how hard you tried."  
"It could be a really good hallucination..." She tried again although her voice was weaker this time.  
"I think you need to leave Mr Smith, security!" Steve called but it was all happening on her periphery she couldn't tear her eyes from Ianto as he took the last step and minimised the gap between the pair of them.  
"You're not real Ianto, I made you up." She whispered as she raised her hand to touch his face, she could feel the stubble underneath her hand, a small scar where he'd cut himself shaving and the muscles in his face moving as he smiled at her and placed his hand on hers. "This is real Lu. I'm real and I'd really like it if you could come home now."  
"But... they said I went mad with grief. They took me to Becky's grave, Yan. Surely that makes more sense than falling through the rift." She desperately wanted to believe him but she had been told for months now that she had made it all up and Torchwood was no more than a TV show. Still holding her hand to his face he brought out his gun and shot Steve in the foot, the man hissed and jumped in pain which made his argument that Ianto wasn't real a lot weaker.  
"I'm real enough to hurt him. I'm real Lu, Torchwood is real, David and Mica have missed you and so has Mfywany, Jack, Martha, you've got a get well soon card from the royals and even Gwen is worried about you."  
"So Becky's not dead?"  
"We've got photos up in the flat of her in care. She survived the crash Lucy but you won't survive much longer if you don't leave here with me."  
"Where is here? Because it feels and looks like a mental home in Brighton and trust me I've been here long enough to see."  
"Would you believe me if I said we were in your head and Martha's been using the technology that Owen salvaged from Torchwood London."  
"The torture stuff to make someone see their worst fears?"  
"That's the one. He played around with it so instead of your fears being made external I'm now internal."  
"So they broke into my mind and you followed?"  
"Pretty much."  
"And that's why they wanted me to say the codes, not so Torchwood released it's hold on me?"  
"How many did you give?"  
"Only the small ones. I couldn't give up Torchwood enough to say more, we'll have to change the codes to a few things though although they use my iris as well. How is this rescue supposed to work?"  
"The plan doesn't go past contacting you." Ianto admitted. "We've been trying for two weeks, Jack had to call in a favour so you could actually hear me. But this is your mind, no matter how hard they try to subdue you I would guess that you're in charge here."  
"Right." She turned and looked around at the walls that were now more of an off white and the human shapes of Steve and her father were blurring at the edges. "Right, I'm in charge and you made me start to believe that I was mad, that my sister was dead. Piss off, all of you. Get out of my head!" She brought Cecil up and shot at them, relishing the feel of the weight in her hands and in the kick back from shooting that she automatically knew to compensate for after hours of training. She figures blurred into the form she remembered fighting months ago before all this started before disappearing and leaving her and Ianto in an empty white room.  
"Ianto?"  
"Yes."  
"No offence but please get out of my head." He laughed and gave her a quick kiss.  
"I'll be there when you wake up."

A/N: This chapter/episode is FINALLY finished and I'm currently working on a bridging chapter before things go back to normal and then I have a THING to happen which I've been looking forward to.  
I'm hoping to get the bridging one up on Christmas day so I'll see you then.  
Hope you have a quiet and peaceful Christmas season.

Rea


	79. Chapter 79- Where am I - waking up

A/N: Sorry I'm a day late. Have a filler chapter that I meant to put up a few days ago

Lucy heard the beeping of the hospital machine first, and then the weight of Ianto's hand in hers and wires connected to various parts of her body. Her eyes felt like led and just opening one of them felt like a battle and one she didn't think she would win, she managed to open the left one a fraction and the light burned against her retinas causing her to shut it again straight away  
"Lu?"  
"Urgh..."  
"Gwen can you dim the lights." Martha asked "Ok, it's darker now, open your eyes again for me Lucy." Lucy did so after another small fight with her body and was relieved to see the hub around her.  
"Tired."  
"You've been in an enforced coma and you've been fighting aliens on your own for two weeks. They're both hard work on the body, it's natural."  
"Is that... alva... them?" Lucy couldn't remember the name of the alien race and even if she could she wouldn't be able to say it at that moment.  
"They're the ones who owed Jack a favour." Ianto explained glancing up at the green gooey creature that didn't have a defined outline.  
"We apologise on behalf of our race." The voice was squeaky and if Lucy had had the energy she would have rolled her eyes at them.  
"Want recom... … money back thing..." She murmured. "Sleep?"  
"Yeah." Martha laughed, "We'll fight for compensation for you while you sleep."  
"Glad you're real." Lucy muttered as she shut her eyes and fell into a natural sleep automatically curling in on herself to get more comfy.  
"Us too." Jack laughed from somewhere above her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Lucy opened her eyes again, it was obviously a while later as she had been moved into a recovery room rather than the bed in the medbay, Ianto was asleep on a chair next to her in a bedraggled suit and Martha was letting herself out of the room.  
"Martha?" She asked quietly not wanting to wake Ianto up  
"Hey." Martha said turning round and walking back over to the bed. "How you feeling?"  
"Tired... confused... how should I feel?"  
"Well you've woken up a few times but you don't remember. That's normal though so don't worry..." She added when she saw the look on Lucy's face. "You've been in a coma for two weeks it'll take you a while to recover."  
"It was months."  
"Might have felt like that when you were trapped, but I promise it was only two and a bit weeks."  
"Oh." Her eyes drifted shut again. "This is real right?"  
"Definitely."  
"Good. I'm gonna sleep again now."

"Hey." Ianto was awake this time working on his laptop when he noticed that she had woken up. Lucy smiled sleepily at him as she took in the off white walls with the old tiles around her instead of pictures of her and her sister. The lack of familiarity was comforting. "How are you feeling?"  
"Tired but ok." She replied, he gave a small smile and she sent a puzzled look in his direction.  
"You've woken up a few times and say the same thing every time."  
"Oh... I don't remember that."  
"Martha warned us about that. Don't worry."  
"How many times?"  
"A few."  
"Ianto."  
"Seven." He admitted begrudgingly.  
"That's more than a few. What time is it?"  
"Coming up to 4pm. Gwen is out talking to Katerina for you so that'll be interesting while Jack is trying to persuade Martha that now she's going to ditch UNIT she should just come to Cardiff instead of staying in London. I was just going over some of the reports sent from London that Jack's ignoring."  
"Thank you." Lucy said softly, "For coming to get me. That was..."  
"I know." He replied shutting the laptop and putting it down. "I saw bits of it."  
"They took me to her grave Yan. I thought..."  
"She's not dead Lu, what they did to you was horrible but it wasn't real."  
"I... can I have a hug?" He rolled her eyes at her and at the idea that she needed to ask but dutifully got out of his chair.  
"Well budge up then." Lucy quickly did so once she realised what he meant and after he slipped his shoes off he joined her in the single bed. It was a tight squeeze but she clung to him like she was drowning and he was the only lifeboat for miles, she relished the motion of his chest going up and down underneath her as he breathed. His scent filled her as well, all the small things that reinforced the fact that this was real. Torchwood was real. He held her just as tightly tucking her into his side and putting his chin above her head.  
"I missed you." She said breaking the comfortable silence. "I mean I thought I had made you up but I still missed you."  
"I think there's a compliment in there somewhere." He replied dryly. "You are aware you're not going to be allowed back into the field for a while aren't you."  
"Yeah, I'd guessed that much. I won't complain as much this time... Ianto?"  
"Hmm..."  
"I love you."  
"I love you too Cariad."  
"Can I go back to sleep now?" He laughed and she could feel the rumbling of it underneath her ear as she lay on his chest.  
"Yes Cariad you can go back to sleep now. See you when you wake up." He tried to move but Lucy held him tight.  
"Nope, you're staying here."  
"I've got work to do." He tried although not with much conviction.  
"And I'm your boss. Stay." He laughed again and tightened his grip on her as she wriggled into a slightly more comfortable sleeping position although the pair of them in the small bed wasn't the best arrangement she wasn't willing to let go of him yet.

A/N: I love you all, thank for the lovely reviews and please don't stop leaving them


	80. Chapter 80 - Death of the Doctor, Part 1

Lucy got out of the car behind Colonel Tia Karim outside number one Bannerman road.

"Stop right there!" Sarah Jane said as she strode out of the house. Lucy couldn't help but smile at the old woman who caused the UNIT soldiers to stop. "Lucy?"

"Hi Sarah Jane." Lucy smiled at her, "Mind if we talk to you?"

"_You_ can come in providing you leave the gun outside but they cannot. I'm not having soldiers on my property."

"I'm here officially on behalf of Torchwood, so Cecil stays with me. But I promise that he will not leave his holster unless we are attacked."

"That will have to do." The older woman conceded, trusting the younger woman's word.

"Sorry" Clyde had to interrupt the conversation, "Are you saying your gun is called Cecil?"

"Course he is." Lucy looked at him like he had asked if one add one really made two. "Keep up Clyde." She looked at the old companion, "I really don't think you want to have this conversation out here Sarah Jane."

"Well you can let me decide that, at least tell me what this about."

"Miss Smith," The UNIT agent decided to take control of the situation, she hadn't been happy when Torchwood had decided to send one of their agents with her, but she had no choice about the matter. When he had complained the agent had just shrugged and got in her own car and then driven all the way behind her, her bosses had told her to simply accept the presence of Torchwood and get on with the job as this particular agent was friends with Miss Smith as well as the Doctor. "My name is Colonel Tia Karim and I represent the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. It is my solemn duty to inform you that your friend, The Doctor is dead."

The two teenagers denied it and Lucy could see Sarah Jane go pale, as Karim continued to explain.

"Last Sunday, at 1700 hours the body of a Time Lord was returned to the Earth. UNIT scientists have checked the DNA results, and it's definitely him."

"You just needed to say it was about the Doctor, Colonel." Lucy took control again, as she walked up to the old companion of the Doctor and put her arms around her, guiding her towards the kids and back into the house.

"Come on Sarah Jane, let's get you inside where you can think about it and what this means. Rani, if you help Sarah inside the house, Clyde can you make us some tea?"

Clyde looked at Sarah Jane and then nodded going ahead of them so he could put the kettle on. Lucy watched Rani, Sarah Jane and Colonel Karim walk into the house as she hung back to explain to Rani's parents who were watching from the other side of the street.

She walked over to Hareesh who was trying not to look like he had been listening, his wife wasn't even bothering to pretend.

"Hi, I'm a friend of a friend of Sarah Jane's and a bit of a fan of hers. Our mutual friend has died, I thought it would be better if I came with them to let her know; UNIT has changed since Sarah Jane was involved, they've become harsher."

"Sarah Jane was involved with _them?"_ Hareesh was shocked.

"A long time ago when she had just started getting into investigative journalism. She was actually friends and worked with the unpaid scientific advisor. He's the one who died."

"Ahh" he thought for a bit, before just adding it to the oddity of his neighbour. "Are you ok? I mean he was your friend too." Lucy shrugged.

"I don't know, I will be. Sarah Jane knew him better than me although arguably I know him better than anyone." She smiled enjoying the confused look on the couple's faces. "I'll go in and talk to her, but I thought I would let you know what's happening. We've come to invite Sarah Jane to the funeral the day after tomorrow. I know its short notice but I was wondering if Rani and Clyde could come, she's going to need the extra support."

"Not a problem with us, I'll call Clyde's mum as well. We'll do everything we can to help."

"Thank you." She went to walk away but he called her back

"Wait..." She paused and turned around "you never said your name."

"Lucy Smith" She smiled and walked into the big house on the corner.

She could hear sounds coming from the attic so walked upstairs to see the epitaph stone playing, she stood just in front of the door so they could see her and but she was not distracting anyone.

"-perished saving the lives of 500 children from the Scarlet Monstrosity"

"Sounds like him" Clyde said with a sad smile

"The Doctor's home world is long since lost but legends talk of his love for the Earth. Therefore, the Shansheeth will return the Doctor to the human race. Oh weep for him peoples of the Earth. Mourn his loss, for the universe feels darker tonight."

Mr Smith stopped playing it and the hologram disappeared.

"So what do you think?" Rani looked at Sarah Jane who looked up at Lucy.

"Any help?"

Lucy shook her head.

"I'm here for you Sarah, to help you in any way you need me. But you know that I can't tell you anything that I may know about this, besides what I know might not be right anyway, things change. Although I'm hoping that this hasn't. Good to meet you properly Mr Smith, by the way."  
"You too Miss Smith." The Xylock replied as Sarah Jane nodded understanding what Lucy had meant. The pair of them had had an in-depth conversation a couple of weeks after the Dalek incident, the journalist had surprised Lucy with how blaisé she was about the idea of travelling across the universes and having her life in a TV show. Instead Sarah Jane had wanted to know more about the smaller differences as well as talking about her travels and adventures that either hadn't been shown on TV or that Lucy didn't know very well.

Rani and Clyde looked at each other shocked that she let this stranger call her simply Sarah, although it could just be because of the shock of the Doctor dying. It was also clear that no one else in the room understood what Lucy had meant.

"UNIT is taking control of the funeral in conjunction with the Shansheeth" The colonel said. "We'll be using UNIT Base 5 situated inside Mount Snowdon. We can arrange transport and accommodation for all of you. It's the day after tomorrow, I know its short notice but we can't do anything about that."

"Thank you." Sarah Jane replied and Lucy couldn't help but smile at how quickly she had accepted the situation.

"Then you'll come?" Karim's face showed how surprised she was at the lack of argument but decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Oh yes, nothing is going to make me miss this. I'll be there. Lucy, do you want to stay here until the funeral? You can stay in Luke's room."

"Thanks. I've got a flat in London not too far from here..." Lucy started to explain but after a look from the older woman decided against it. "But, I'd like to stay if I could, it'd be nice to have some company. I'll call Ianto and let him know what's going on. I can drive us as to the funeral as well, so you don't need to worry about that Colonel. If you could call me this evening to let me know timings, I already know where the base is so don't worry about that. That way you don't need to send someone out to get us there when they could be busy doing other more important things. Don't let us keep you Colonel, we'll see you at the funeral." Lucy wasn't quite mocking the UNIT officer but it was very clear that the woman wasn't wanted in the house.

Karim glared at her and then gave a small nod and left the attic, Lucy looked out of the window and watched as UNIT drove away.

"They've gone." She looked at the teenagers, "come on you two, let's leave Sarah Jane alone for a while. Sarah Jane, I'll call Ianto and then go round to mine and get some clothes and such like." She scribbled down her number on a piece of paper, "That's my number, I will answer that instantly if you call and if you don't I'll be a couple of hours. I need to pop into the office and report to the boss about what's going on."

Lucy ushered Clyde and Rani out of the attic and Sarah Jane called her back,

"Lucy?"

"Yeah" She popped her head through the door. "Just tell me one thing..."

"If I can I will."

"Am I right?"

"I don't think you're wrong." She grinned, "But then we could just be two women in denial; which is what they'll think of us."

"Well we'd better prove them wrong then."

"Yeah. See you Sarah Jane Smith." She went back into the corridor and walked down the stairs with Clyde and Rani.

"Who are you?" Clyde asked the minute they were sure Sarah Jane wouldn't be able to hear them

"Torchwood." She replied seriously before grinning, "I'm a friend of the Doctors and Sarah Jane's. Although we've only met in person once before now."

"Have you travelled with him?"

She shook her head and tried to work out how best to explain without breaking the OSA.

"It's a bit more complicated than that. I work for Torchwood, we're similar to UNIT but we only work for the UK and get paid by the royal family. Put it this way the boss of my boss is the 2nd in line for the throne and I'm on first name terms with him and Kate; I have their personal numbers in my phone."

"Wow" Clyde was impressed.

"Yeah. Downside is, apart from Jack it's almost certain that currently no field agents will live past their 30th birthday. I'm working to fix that. And I know when I'm going to die, not the exact date but I know how and I know it's in the next year or so."

"Ahh" Rani said and Clyde suddenly wasn't looking as impressed

"Yeah." she nodded, "One hell of a downside. But, trust me. My death is worth it, I'm a bit of a special person in that case. Ask Sarah Jane about it when it's all over and she'll tell you more."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

A couple of days later, Lucy sat in the driver's seat of her car and drove herself, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani to the UNIT base. Clyde and Rani were fairly quiet but Sarah Jane and Lucy were talking about the aliens they'd seen and different stories of the Doctor. The teenagers adding in stories of the ones they'd met and asking a few questions, but mostly they were happy to listen.

They pulled up to the base where they were stopped by soldiers, Lucy rolled down the window and pulled out her ID.

"Lucy Smith, Torchwood. Accompanying me are Sarah Jane Smith, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra. I believe we are expected."

"You are ma'am" The solider said after checking her ID, "Do you have any weapons on you?"

"One standard issue Torchwood stun gun and Cecil, as well as a few knives on me as well. This isn't the SUV so I've not got any of the big weaponry in the boot though there almost certainly is some, even if I can't remember what it is. It'll probably be some more stun guns and my spare knives. Oh and weevil spray. The others don't have any weapons on them." Lucy replied and she smirked when she wasn't asked for clarification on Cecil, Martha had told her about the memo that had gone out about Lucy Smith and her gun and the fact that she had named it. Apparently it was 'not smart' to try and separate them. She wasn't sure how they got that information, apart from when she had visited Kate, but it still made her smile at the idea.

The man nodded and filled in the information on the form.

"Go on through, and we're sorry for your loss."

"Well as he's not dead that means fu-" She looked at Sarah Jane and decided it was probably best not to swear, she already didn't look impressed by the list of weapons that were in the car. "sod all. But thank you anyway."

Clyde was impressed with the base as they went in.

"Now that is what I call a base, rocket and everything."

"Torchwood Cardiff is underneath the bay, we've got an invisible lift next to the fountain. Torchwood Scotland is in the original Torchwood house and Torchwood London is in Canary Wharf, we're setting it up again; giving me a hell of a lot of work but its good stuff. We don't quite stand out as much as UNIT bases. Oh and Torchwood four is under the Eden Project, we found it again a couple of weeks ago."

"Besides," Sarah Jane added "nothing wrong with the attic."

"Nope." Clyde agreed quickly "The attic is brilliant but look at it."

"Too obviously sci-fi for me." Lucy shrugged, "This screams 'secrets', Torchwood doesn't. Well not from the outside anyway, but I suppose UNIT have always liked to show off. And before you say anything Sarah Jane about Jack I completely agree with you, but luckily he's not the one designing the base." She smiled and they continued to drive until they got to the car park.

"I thought the Doctor didn't approve of guns." Rani said eventually, "Why have you got so many?"

"He doesn't" Lucy said as they parked, "But Torchwood does, I don't like using my guns. Well that's a lie; I love using Cecil. He's a beautiful gun, all my babies are – I take good care of them. I mean I don't like using it to harm people but on the whole you've been lucky. A few months ago two of my team mates were murdered and Cardiff was almost destroyed, if it's a case of shoot someone or something trying to harm people then I'll shoot, but only when I have no other option and I defiantly don't like shooting to kill. Life sucks and I deal with the dregs of it, they listen to things like guns." She saw Sarah Jane's frown of disapproval and quickly continued.

"Just because they are needed in some situations doesn't mean it's a good thing. It's would be a lot better if we could work the same way you do, so don't go getting any ideas. The Doctor won't be impressed by the amount of weapon's I've got on me, but I consider them a necessary evil. I don't always use them but they are there if I need them, the knives are a new addition, recently we've met aliens with the ability to block guns, or rather to stop them working. Like the Sontarans that UNIT had to deal with last year. Doesn't work with knives, I used a bow and arrow that day but they are rather difficult to keep hidden and a right pain to use as well. Plus I'm shit with them quite frankly. I have no clue how we survived that apart from plain dumb luck. We had a visitor about 5 months ago and Sam taught me how to throw knives and use them in a fight, I got the knives for my birthday and I kept up the training once he left."

Colonel Karim was waiting for them.

"We've allocated bedrooms, the funeral will take place a 0900 hours tomorrow morning so that gives you time to acclimatise. The doors to the funeral wing will be sealed at 2100 hours. This is still a working military base so you'll only have access to the specified areas. Miss Smith that includes you too."

Lucy and Sarah Jane both looked at each other and silently decided she was talking to the younger of the two. Lucy disagreed with what she had been told.

"Not true." She said calmly although you could hear the steel in her voice.

"With all due respect Miss Smith it is. I know you are a member of Torchwood and that gives you permission to have '_Cecil'_ and other weaponry with you." She spat out the name Cecil like the word itself was contaminated but continued. "You may be a member of Torchwood but this is UNIT and I outrank you."

Lucy couldn't help it she laughed, the others stopped walking to look at her and she stopped although she was still grinning.

"I fail to see what is funny."

"You are." Lucy said with a grin "the fact you think you outrank me is brilliantly funny." She turned deadly serious, "I am second in control of the whole of the Torchwood organisation, that includes Cardiff, Torchwood House, London and Torchwood 4. Oh and the Torchwood 5 that we're planning on setting up in Ireland, as well as the possibility of Torchwood 6 – we're looking into the logistics of having a base down under." She gave a small fake smile. "So the idea that you think that you have any right at all to lock me up in this base is frankly brilliantly amusing, and also very, _**very**_ wrong. I outrank everyone on this base; every single person here is outranked by me, the annoying girl with a gun called Cecil and especially as I am here on official business from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; **not** as your guest."

It took a while for Karim to work out a response.

"I am sorry Miss Smith but I have my orders. Until I have any proof of what you say you must be kept in the specified areas."

"Ok" Lucy said with a shrug and a grin her voice going back to its normally cheery self "fine by me," She pulled out her phone, "I'll call my mate as we walk then, I presume I am allowed to make a phone call."

The Colonel nodded and they continued to walk, Clyde and Rani were staring at Lucy, who just winked at them as she dialled a number from memory.

"Hi Will it's me, how's Kate?" Both teenagers realised who she was speaking to and couldn't help but return the smirk she sent at them. "Good I'm glad, remind her that she promised to watch Lord of the Rings, I don't care if she's going to be queen one day she still needs to see it. If needs be when I'm next over at yours for a debrief I will sit her down and watch it with her. Could do with a proper catch up anyway." She laughed, she was acting much more casual with the Head of Torchwood than she normally would do but it was all part of the Game and the Colonel glared at her as she also realised who Lucy was speaking to. "Anyway William, I've run into a bit of bother at the UNIT base... no I haven't killed or hurt anyone, yet anyway. But they seem to think that they are able to lock me up at night in the bedroom they've assigned for me. I was just wondering... brilliant. Thanks William, funeral is tomorrow morning so I'll be back in a day or two. You'll have my report on your desk as soon as possible. Bye." She hung up and continued to walk as though nothing important had happened. She made sure to keep an eye out for anything that looked suspicious that she should come and look at again later, she didn't think UNIT were that stupid as to leave anything out on display but you never knew.

"So who else is coming?" Rani asked

"Well it's all been a bit of a rush, the Brigadier is stranded in Peru and Miss Shaw can't make it back from Moonbase until Sunday."

"What about Martha?" Lucy asked actually interested in what they had to say, "She's only in Italy she could get back easily. And then there is Ian and Barbra, they're in Cambridge. And Ace is hardly far away, and what about Benton? Or Mel, she's in Pease Pottage?"

"Doctor Jones has decided to stay with her patients in Italy. Mr and Mrs Chesterton are busy. As for the others they all gave their own reasons." Came the reply after a slight pause.

"Bullshit" Lucy murmured to Rani. "I called Martha last night, they hadn't told her, she had to find out through the TARDIS grape vine. They're just angry cause I've got her jumping ship to Torchwood London in a week or so and Ian and Barbra have never liked UNIT, so I doubt they've told them, they don't really like Torchwood either but they'll put up with us. I reckon they just contacted the old companions from when he worked with UNIT because they had to tell somebody."

"You have a Moonbase?" Clyde stopped for a second just thinking about the idea, "oh man I am running out of reactions."

They turned the corner and the kids and Sarah Jane stopped, Lucy and Colonel Karim turned to see what the problem was.

"You've got Graske?" Rani asked angrily, "What are you doing with Graske?"

"I knew it I said there was something going on." Sarah Jane said, Lucy was slightly shaking her head but they didn't notice.

"Sorry what's the problem?" Karim was confused so Clyde filled her in.

"We've met Graske before and believe me they're trouble."

"Oh they're not Graske, they're Groske"

One of the Groskes walked past and spoke to them, "Groske very different, Groske hate Graske, Groske are blue. Graske make me stamp my feet!"  
Lucy couldn't help but giggle a bit at the Groske, she had met them before and they always reminded her of house-elves, she and Jack had turned down the prospect of having Groske help rebuild the London base, neither of them feeling particularly comfortable with the idea of alien slave labour.

"The Groske were stranded on earth in 2006, we took them in and they've been earning their keep as workmen." Karim said and they started to walk on as her phone wrung. "Excuse me." She said as she answered it "Colonel Karim speaking... yes sir... yes sir... I understand sir... I'll let her know sir... thank you sir"

Lucy grinned and smirked at the colonel as she hung up.

"Anything interesting Colonel Karim?"

"It appears the Royal family have been on the phone and they wanted to remind us that you have free reign over the base as you are here on behalf of them. They also wanted to remind you that you and Ianto are supposed to be going to theirs for Sunday lunch and the Duchess says she'll watch Lord of the Rings with you then and they'll set the spare room up for you so you don't have to worry about getting home late that night. Apparently Prince William forgot when he was on the phone to you earlier."

"I'm glad he reminded me, because I had forgotten." Lucy said knowing full well that there had been no such plan in place and that Prince William had come up with the idea on the spur of the moment to help her out and just wanted to prove to everyone that Lucy outranked them. That didn't mean that she and Ianto didn't now have to go to the Palace on Sunday, it would be rude not to. She was also aware that everyone else knew this as well. Power and showing that you had power was important in this game and after Ianto had properly pulled her out of her shell and the shadows she found she enjoyed it. "Now that we have cleared up that _small_ misunderstanding about locking me in over night, I believe we should continue. We need to put our bags somewhere after all."

"Yes ma'am." The colonel said although she obviously wasn't happy about saying it and Lucy didn't correct her, "this way"

Lucy looked at Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde.

"I'll answer all questions later I promise."

"You'd better." Clyde said with a grin as they continued.

"That told you." Sarah Jane smiled at the younger woman. "Clyde will hold you to that, and now that we've finished your show of power perhaps you could tone it down a bit. Is there really a need to make your long coat fan out behind you?"

"Oh Miss Smith you wound me with your comment" Lucy grinned putting a hand on her heart as though she had been wounded. "If it upsets you that much I shall of course do my coat up but I will warn you that I will undo it the minute we have to run. It looks far more impressive running with a coat flailing behind you. Surely all your time with the Doctor taught you that."

"Groske build rocket for coffin, come and see, come and see." They all followed the Colonel and Groske to a huge rocket.

"Rocket X-15 will take the Doctor's body into space, sealed inside a lead-lined coffin. Then he'll be set free. In death as he was in life."

"Very poetic" Sarah Jane said dryly.

"I think it's beautiful" Rani said "just what he deserves"

"What about the TARDIS?" Sarah Jane asked

"There was no sign of it." Karim replied, "The Shansheeth looked but they could not see it, the body was found alone."

"Blimey though, not a bad way to go. That's a real proper rocket." Clyde said with a whistle

"Boy smells" The Groske said disturbing the mood

"Oi thanks a bunch. You short little titch"

"Clyde" Rani reprimanded him "of all the things for you to laugh at, height!"

"Yeah you smelly bad smell-boy."

"Not to agree with him about the whole smelling thing, although I smell a plot point," Lucy said with a slight smile, "if you have a go at short people I will have to hurt you."

"Fine. You blue, bluey... blueness"

Karim decided now was the right time to interrupt.

"Anyway this area is about to be sealed off according to the curfew. I will take you to your rooms and the Shansheeth are going to hold a gathering of remembrance."

"And you still had to get me the code or something so the curfew doesn't apply to me." Lucy added.

"Ah yes, well I will have you taken to Colonel James, he deals with that."

"Thank you," Lucy nodded her head, "after getting it cleared up it wouldn't do for me not to have the correct access code or pass. Clyde can you take my bag, just dump it in the room. I doubt I'll be sleeping much so I really don't care what bed I get."

Sarah Jane looked her and hung back to speak quietly.

"Why won't you be sleeping?"

"Two reasons" Lucy replied equally quietly "One I want to have a proper look around this place. Two, I said 'much', providing nothing happens I'll get some sleep. But I'm not picky enough to care which bed I get, exploration is much more fun. You need to go catch the others up, I'm going to find this Colonel. See you in a bit Sarah Jane."

"See you Lucy." Sarah Jane said as she went to go catch the rest of her group up. One of the soldiers was waiting for Lucy.

"I've been told to take you to see Colonel James"

"Lay on MacDuff" Lucy said as she followed him in silence around the base.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

It didn't take long and soon Lucy had free access around the entire base, although annoyingly they had given it a time limit of two days. She walked down to the area where she had been told the ceremony was being held.

She slipped inside the room closing the door gently behind her, or at least as gently as you could shut a steel door.

"... we were on the southern plateau of the Tierra del Fuego. So we had to hike to Buenos Aires, get a boat to Las Malvinas and a cargo plane across the Atlantic." Lucy sat down next to Santiago who was busy talking to Rani and Clyde.

"And they said the Brig was stranded. Sure as hell sounds like you were stranded to me, looks like Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart could do with taking some tips from Jo Grant. I'll make sure to mention it to his nephew. I'm surprised Kate isn't here as well at least on behalf of her father."

"Who are you?" Santiago asked.

"Lucy Smith, Torchwood." She replied, "I'm a sort-of friend of the Doctor's, friends with Sarah Jane and a fan of your gran."

Santiago looked like he was going to say something then shrugged.

"Fair enough. So where are you guys from?"

"Ealing" Clyde and Rani said feeling a bit foolish.

"Live in Cardiff, but I might end up being based in London for a bit, just until the new branch gets going properly." Lucy replied, "Currently in discussion with William about that, neither Ianto or I want to move from Cardiff. We're happy where we are and we've just bought a new house although works given us a flat in all the relevant cities, so that's not an issue. But that's a subject for a different day. It's good to meet you Santiago Jones."

"How do you know my name?" He asked confused.

"They're getting on well." Lucy smirked looking at Jo and Sarah Jane, purposefully changing the topic of conversation.

"Gran doesn't think the Doctor's dead." Santiago said sadly, following the changing topic as he realised that she wasn't going to answer his questions.

"Neither does Sarah Jane." Clyde replied.

"And neither do I," Lucy added "it all seems too convenient. If he was dead they'd hold the funeral back longer to have more people here, the Brig for one is not the kind of person to simply be stranded and as they didn't tell Martha..." She trailed off and shrugged, "Beside it doesn't feel like he's dead. The Last of the Time Lords, the whole the universe should be in mourning but it doesn't feel like it is."

The kids all looked at each other and raised their eyebrows but didn't say anything.

It wasn't much longer after that that the ceremony ended and they all went to the rooms they'd been given.

"It's great to meet you Jo." Lucy said. "I'm a big fan of your work"  
"Well it's great to meet you too sweetheart." The older lady said. "Did you travel with the Doctor?" She asked.

"No, I'm not as lucky as you. I've only met him once" Lucy replied honestly "Christmas Eve before the Titanic started to fall to Earth. I work in Torchwood and keep a keen eye on his travels and all his companions."

"Torchwood is one of our regular donators."

"We might save the world from aliens but that doesn't mean we can't help you save it from humanity."

"Right." Sarah Jane said pulling out a notebook and bringing the conversation back round to how they could help the Doctor. "We need to make a list, because we need to work out who'd fake the Doctor's death, and why."

"It's going to be a long list Sarah Jane, he's got plenty" Lucy could help but point out, "and none of us know everything."

"Well it's a start." Jo said as she pulled candles out of her bag "We can use these to help us think. They're scented with jatamansi oil. It's a herb from the banks of the Ganges, it helps to focus the mind." Lucy caught Sarah Jane's eye and they both smiled at each other and tried not to laugh. Clyde picked one up to smell it and then put it back down as Rani stood up.

"Right, we're going to get some tea."

"Oh, no, no, no, just hot water for me please sweetheart." Jo said pulling something else out of her bag. "I've got some powdered lapacho. You know the Doctor took me to this planet once, called Peladon and the smell of lapacho... well, it reminds me of the Royal Palace."

"I went to Peladon!" Sarah Jane said up

"You never did!"

"With the great beast, Aggador."

"Same planet." They both laughed and hugged each other.

"Ok..." Clyde said awkwardly, "Laters."

Lucy walked out with the teenagers. "Right, you go and find tea and such like. As a responsible adult I am telling you it would be very stupid for you to go wandering around the ventilation shafts. So don't do it."

The other three grinned, "Understood" Said Rani. "What are you going to do?"

"Well they've locked some doors, and how am I supposed to resist an invitation like that?"

"I wish the Doctor was here" Clyde said

"We all do" Rani agreed.

"No I mean I wish he was here so he could explain this." He held up his hand and Lucy looked at it.

"Keep it hidden Clyde. Don't let any of UNIT see, some of them are brilliant but some aren't, it's really not the safest place to have your hand glowing with Artron energy. Curfew, is coming up soon, so I'm going out, make sure you get to bed nice and early. I'll see you guys later." And with that she walked away leaving the three teenagers confused and smiling at the not so subtle hints.

Lucy wondered round the base having a look into some of the labs and asking the scientists about the experiments they were running. She couldn't help but hear the music the Shansheeth had been playing earlier and started to feel tired, but she growled and pulled both knives out threw them at the wall. The Shansheeth quickly got the message and the music stopped. She may have strong memories of the Doctor but she was armed and she'd be dammed if they were going to use her in any part of their plot. The real reason they had been invited to UNIT had started and she had to get back to the funeral wing. Lucy started to run, just like she had promised Sarah Jane she undid her coat so it flared out behind her. She had only been running for about a minute or so when the Shansheeth appeared behind her and following her before she could damage their plan, Lucy sped up and slid round the corner and down a few more corridors, the Shansheeth staying on her tail even though they weren't quite as quick.

"Shansheeth following me." She shouted before grinning, as she turned another corner and found the people she had been running towards "Doctor!"

"Lucy Smith." She continued running and gave him a hug. It might not be the same body that she had met before but it was still the Doctor. She couldn't help but be amused at how he looked the same age as her and managed to pull off the clothes that no one her age would wear.

"Good to see you finally."

"You too although, the guns? Really?" he said pulling out of the hug looking at her disapprovingly.

"Hey don't call Cecil names. I haven't used them yet, today, and I've had space vultures chasing after me."

"Yeah, on that..." Santiago said and they turned to see the Shansheeth turning the corner.

"Ah yes. I want a word with you. Have you been telling people I'm dead?" The Doctor said walking up to them.

"I apologise." The leader said, "The death notice was released a little too soon. Though I can rectify this, immediately!"

Some sort of energy pulsed sprang from his hand and hit the Doctor.

"Wow that looks like magic, like real proper magic." Lucy breathed, "I mean it's impressive."

"Yes, thanks for that..." The Doctor grunted as he fell to the floor

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Doctor" The Shansheeth said and Lucy pulled Cecil out from his holster. Sarah Jane looked at her and hissed.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know where the heart is and killing them at this point would be stupid, we don't know everything yet. They may have back up, they _probably_ have back up. So don't worry, they just need to be distracted is all."

"Rest in peace."

Lucy shot the Shansheeth in the foot and it did what she'd expected it too, it distracted it enough that the energy beam stopped.

"RUN!" She shouted.

A/N: SURPRISE! I've had this planned for AGES so I'm glad I'm finally sharing it with you. See you again in 2017!


	81. Chapter 81 - Death of the Doctor, Part 2

"What was that for?" The Doctor asked annoyed as they were running, "I had a plan."

"Well my way was quicker and I didn't know that." She replied, "Look I didn't kill him, I just hurt him a bit and now you're not in pain. I see that as a good thing."

He changed back to Clyde and Lucy grabbed his hand as he stumbled.

"Come on Clyde, space vultures chasing us."

"Yeah, running seems like a good idea." Clyde said looking at what was behind him.

Lucy noticed the change as they were running, the hand she was holding was suddenly bigger and now she was being dragged along instead of dragging Clyde. She looked up and grinned at the Doctor and couldn't help the quote.

"Love the running."

He smiled back and they ran through the door.

"Come on Smith." He said looking at Sarah Jane who ran after him.

"Which one?" Sarah Jane asked with a laugh.

"Both of you." They ran into the bedroom they were in earlier and Colonel Karim walked up to them.

"Anything wrong?"

"Evil deadly space vultures" Lucy replied as the Doctor slammed the door on her. He quickly opened it again and let go of Lucy's hand.

"Sorry, I was slamming it." And with that he slammed it again and leaned against it. "We need to get this locked. Use the sonic lipstick."

"What about the screwdriver?" Sarah Jane asked as she pulled the lipstick out of her jacket pocket.  
"They took it off me." The Doctor replied as Jo asked

"They make sonic lipstick now? Wow."

"Now." The Doctor said once he was sure that UNIT couldn't get in, "I need you Sarah and you Jo." He grabbed each of their hands.

"What for?" Jo asked

"Remember when we went off on adventures to faraway places?"

"Yes."

He grinned "well..." And with that they vanished and Clyde appeared in their place.

"I'm getting space sick" He said taking a deep breath. Rani laughed and hugged him.

"Sorry" Colonel Karim knocked on the door. "But can I help?"

The teenagers looked at each other, Santiago was confused.

"But she's on our side isn't she?"

"Human doesn't always mean good," Lucy said with a sad smile before speaking through the door, "Does it Tia?"

"Not as daft as you look, not for a couple of pensioners, a bunch of asbo kids and a psycho who names her gun. You were always going to make things difficult."

"Thank you." Lucy replied, "One of the best compliment's I've ever had."

"We need to clear this place, seal it off and keep that lot trapped."

"Ooh hide and seek." Lucy grinned and spoke through the door, "So are we hiding and you're counting or is it the other way round? Cause you already know where we are so it wouldn't be fair. Maybe we should count. 1... 2... 3..."

"Arghh!" She heard the colonel groan as she walked further down the corridor.

Lucy span round and grinned at them.

"Well that was fun. Now let's work out a way out, because I'm not stupid, my all access code will have just expired. So we need to find another way out and I need to let Ianto know the Doctor isn't dead. He can tell Jack and William and make sure everyone else knows as well, including the rest of UNIT and companions across the world."

She pulled her phone out and quickly dialled Ianto's number, she couldn't help but smile and automatically feel better when she heard his voice, "Heyya" She breathed, "It's me."

"_Hi you. How's it going?"_

"Well first things first, the Doctor's not dead."

"_Well that's good."_

"Yeah, so I thought I would call you so you can let everyone else know. Oh and we're invited to the palace for Sunday lunch and to stay the night with Will and Kate."

"_Lucy_?" She could hear the worry in his voice

"Ianto?" She replied in the same tone before continuing, "I'm fine, honest, shot a space vulture in the foot. The Doctor wasn't happy, but oh well. I'm fine Ianto. I met the Doctor and we ran" She grinned and she knew Ianto could hear the grin. "I _ran_ with the Doctor, and I met Jo Grant and she's brilliant too. And the Doctor, Yan. I met The Doctor!"

The groske knocked down the opening on the ventilation shaft, as the lock down alarm went off in the base.

"You come, hide, now, quickly."

"Listen Ianto I love you but I've got to go. Speak to you later."

"_What's happening?"_

"The Doctor, space vultures and a groske. Oh and running, there will almost certainly be running involved. I'll let you know more when it's over. Love you." She laughed and hung up, "come on kiddies, into the ventilation shaft."

"Oi" Clyde said but climbed into the shaft after the groske.

Lucy was the last into the shaft and she shuffled after the teenagers.

"Any hint on where we're going?" She asked

"We need to move, hide, quickly."

They ended up in a small room where the ventilation shafts met.

"Hey you've got a den." Clyde was impressed, "what's the hurry."

"Pizza" The groske replied grabbing a box "go cold."

"I thought you had a plan" Clyde wasn't impressed

"Shansheeth too scary! We hide""

Lucy climbed out of the shaft behind Santiago and grabbed a slice.

"Bad plan, but nice pizza."

"We've got to do something." He threw the pizza box to the floor.

"Yeah" Rani was thinking, "but hiding's not bad, 'cause we've got to keep you safe Clyde. The Doctor needs you for that body switcheroo"

"Not sure that's the technical word, Rani" Lucy said "But yeah, right now the best thing you guys can do is hide and as much as I don't want to, I need to keep you safe and that means I need to hide too. The Doctor would kill me if I didn't and so would Sarah Jane and Jo."

"I can't believe you get to do this all the time." Santiago was impressed.

"And you are the main person I'm looking after. You are not leaving my sight Santiago, you hear me." Lucy said sternly, he crossed his arms and stared at her his frustration as the idea was clear so she continued, "As you pointed out, they do this all the time. You're the newbie of the group and quite frankly you have no idea at all how to deal with hostile aliens. They've had the work experience."

"You can talk Santiago" Clyde said stepping in before he could disagree, privately he was scared of Lucy and didn't want to see her angry. "We do all of this but we've not left London. You're off to Paraguay and Mount Everest"

"You just zapped into another planet. That was pretty cool."

"Yeah and definitely not London" Rani pointed out

"Yeah that was pretty awesome, and ok we stay in London when we stay on Earth. Happy Rani?" Rani nodded and Lucy grabbed her second slice of pizza.

"You're ahead of me Clyde, I've never been off planet."

"We've been to parallel times, dream dimensions, limbo and then we go home for tea!"

"I've been in a parallel world" Lucy pointed out

"We see all of this and then my mum is like 'What did you do today?' I'm like 'Not much.'"

"Went to the library" Rani added

"Played a bit of footie"

"Stayed behind after Drama Club."

"Oh yeah." Clyde added nonchalantly "and I fought off a platoon of Judoon in my spare time."

"I've not seen my mum for six months now" Santiago said

"How come?" Rani asked

"She's in Japan, organising a rally. I mean... its great, really good work. Before that she was in Africa finding shell-flower plants. My father is with the gay dad's organisation hiking across Antarctica. We haven't all been together since about February."

"When are you going to see them again? Rani asked quietly, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer

"Soon" He replied quickly "...It's just hard you know."

Lucy handed him a piece of pizza.

"I've not seen my sister for 2years 4months and 8days." The teenagers stared at her and she pulled a picture of Becky out of her wallet and showed it to them. "I love what I do, Torchwood and the aliens and seeing the best of humanity sometimes and the other species that come just to look at the beauty of the Earth. And yeah, sometimes its hard work and humans are the worst, I've wimped out of a camping trip where they met cannibals and there are days when I am literally dragging dead bodies out of the sewers but I know that there are people who are safer at night. We're alien fighters by day and the wedding fairy at night. And that's brilliant. But then I think Becky would love to know this story, or I see something in a shop that she'd like, or a child wearing the same top or with the same colour hair and I just wish I could see her."

"Why can't you?" Rani asked

"She doesn't exist." Lucy said with a sad smile, "not here anyway, not in this universe. I wasn't born in this universe I was born in one where you're all characters on TV. And the sad thing is sometimes I live stories I know, like this one and I remember that Becky liked it and thought the Shansheeth looked silly, or I live a story that wasn't on TV and I think that maybe it is, maybe they've done a new series and this is in it and Becky is watching so I've got to do a good job because I don't want her to watch and be disappointed. And then I remember that to get back to Becky means leaving Ianto and this life." She finished off her slice of pizza and smiled a proper smile at the teenagers (well a smile that they were fooled by anyway).

"And the moral of that story is LIVE. Because when I go, I'm going to have so many stories to tell Becky and if I don't go back and I stay dead then I know that Ianto is alive and Becky is no more worse off than she is currently. So damn well cling to your family, Santiago, shout at them and order them to come and see you. They're busy fighting for other families so you fight for yours. And after that cheesy but hopefully rousing speech I need more pizza."

Before the teenagers could say anything in reply the walls of the 'den' closed cutting off the ventilation shaft they came in through.

"What's happening?" Clyde asked

"Trapped" The groske replied

"I'm guessing they found us." Lucy added,

"Heating! Hot, hot, hot" The blue alien said.

"They're trying to boil us." Rani said, Clyde looked at Lucy

"Anything you can do?"

She pulled one of her knives out and started trying to pull the heater off the wall before stopping, "Doesn't look like it. If Tosh was still alive I'd call her and get her to hack the UNIT system and shut down the heating, but I can't and no one else in Torchwood is capable enough of doing it. Well not Cardiff anyway and London isn't set up enough to warrant breaking into UNIT" She looked up at the shaft above them, "Let me try and get this one off or at least break it a bit... heat rises after all but I can't promise anything." She pulled out one of her knives and started to work on the screws at the corners and pulling it down.

"What about the way we came in?" Santigao asked

"Well if you can get that off be my guest, but you're going to struggle with that."

"We die like rotisserie"

"Well you can but I'm not." Rani shot back at the grokse.

"Damn right Rani." Lucy added, "While I work on this you call for help!"

"Sarah Jane"

"Doctor"

"Gran"

The teenagers started shouting and Lucy started work on the grate above them, it helped a bit but not enough that they wouldn't die. It would simply take longer.

After a few minutes there was the sound of someone else crawling through the shaft. "Hurry up, Lucy's been able to help but we're getting boiled alive." Clyde shouted

"Hold on" The Doctor replied "We're coming."

"Don't worry Santiago, I'm here."

Lucy stopped working on the grate and grinned at the teenagers.

"Supergran!" She said to Santiago, he grinned back and they were all relieved that they would be able to get out.

After a few seconds the sound of crawling continued and the Doctor came towards them.

"I'm here, hang on. Ooh there's a thing by the door. I like things by door they are normally locks. Aaaaand... release."

The wall lifted up again the Doctor smiled at them, before he could say anything else Clyde spoke.

"Blimey you really have changed haven't you... I couldn't see before I was too busy."

"Some of us are still roasting back here." Rani pointed out

"Ahh yes." The Doctor tried to turn around but quickly found he couldn't.

"You have to shuffle backwards." Clyde said.

"Oh yes, OK. Thank you, Clyde." The doctor said starting to shuffle backwards so they could get out.

"Right." Lucy said, "Clyde you go first, then you Rani, then Santiago and the groske and I'll bring up the rear."

They quickly all started crawling through the ventilation shaft listening to Clyde talk to the Doctor.

"Even your eyes are different. It's weird, cause I thought the eyes would stay the same. Can you change colour or are you always white?"

"Ooh I've got a better question that whovians have been asking since the 60s, can you regenerate into a woman?" Lucy asked from the back

They all stopped and looked back at her.

"What? How is my question odd and his isn't?"

"No, I don't have to be white." The Doctor replied.

"Didn't answer my question" Lucy murmured.

"And is there a limit? I mean how many times can you change?"

"507" The Doctor replied as he hit a wall behind him and awkwardly turned the corner.

"Bullshit" Lucy shouted up, "You get 12 regeneration cycles, so 13 bodies. But you get double the amount if you're president and you were, but then the time lords no longer exist so I suppose you could be right. Basically Clyde he currently gets at least 13 bodies -potentially 26 - and he's currently on number 11."

"I know my own history and the laws of the Time Lords better than you." The Doctor shouted down, "I think I'm better at answering these questions."

"Sorry." Lucy said hanging her head

The Doctor smirked at Clyde.

"What she said, for all I know we're both right."

A minute or so later they climbed out of the shaft and after hearing an ominous sound they started to run down the corridor towards the funeral room they had all been in earlier that day.

"Argh, they've sealed it off." The Doctor hit the door. "Jo, Sarah can you hear me?"

"They want the key! They've got the TARDIS and a Memory Weave." Sarah Jane replied.

"Too late" The voice of the colonel spat, "Full activation"

"Bugger." Lucy started playing with the control box, "damn I should have listened to Tosh more. I can hack the government and get into CCTV without a problem now, but something like this..." She looked up at them, "I can't get in"

The Doctor pulled the key out of his pocket.

"I've got the original here. You can have it if you let them go."

"Don't think that's going to work." Lucy tried to work the system again, "come on. If I can work around it and trip the doors open... right next thing to learn. How to successfully hack UNIT and deadlocked sealed doors. Where's Tosh's cheat sheets when you want them? And why did she not add one about hacking unit into her dummy guides?"

Clyde started hitting the door with a fire extinguisher.

"It's not working. What do we do Doctor?"

Lucy could see his mind work as he came up with the solution.

"Yes... the Shansheeth are making them remember." He muttered, trying to find a way out.

"We know that." Clyde replied, "How do we stop it?"

"We don't" Lucy said, glad she could now help, as the Doctor had worked it out. "We do the same thing."

The Doctor pushed her out of the way.

"Opening comms. Sarah, Jo can you hear me?"

"The key!" Sarah Jane replied, "it's almost ready."

The Doctor stood as close to is companions as he could, leaning up against the door.

"Listen to me, both of you, I want you to remember."

"We are, that's the problem." Jo said

"No, no, no, no, no. I want you to remember everything. Every single day with me. Every single second. Because your memories are more powerful than anything else on this planet. Just think of it Sarah. Remember it, Jo. But properly! Properly! Give the Memory Weave everything. Every planet. Every face. Every madman, every loss, every sunset, every scent, every terror, every joy. Every Doctor."

"I remember" Sarah Jane said and they could hear the smile

"All the colours on that stupid scarf." Lucy added, "And all the soldiers at UNIT not quite sure what you were doing there but grateful every time you saved them. The Brig. Benton. Yates. Harry Sullivan. The Master and all his disguises. And the Daleks and Davros and Sontarons, and Cybermen. Oh and the smoking cape he used to have and the curly hair. And the car, that stupid brilliant car of his, what was her name? Bessie!"

"I remember."

"We need that key!"

Lucy looked at the kids and they started to join in.

"Think of us Sarah Jane," Clyde started, "and all the stuff we did, like Maria and the gorgon."

"And the clowns and the zodiac. And the Mona Lisa!"

"All of it"

"And don't forget Luke" Lucy added "and K-9 and the TARDIS full of everyone; Jack and Jackie and Martha and Mickey and the special snowflake and Donna and the two Doctors."

"All the countries you've been to Gran." Santiago said "all the stories you tell"

"Weave starting to self destruct." A mechanical voice told them.

"It's blown a circuit" Sarah Jane shouted and they all sighed, "I've got you Jo."

"Now we're in trouble." The Doctor said suddenly realising, "the weave's going to blow up. And we can't get them out."

"What?" Rani asked before looking at Lucy. "You must know something."

Lucy smiled at them.

"I've got an idea, if the Doc doesn't think about it I'll say it. But I need to allow him time first."

"Screw that, you need to save them." The teenagers weren't very impressed, but the Doctor agreed with Lucy.

"No she's right. Time travel doesn't work like that. If she tells us the answer its a paradox."

"Doctor" Sarah Jane shouted from next to the door. "Doctor I can't get out, we've drained the sonic"

"I can't open it." He said resting his head against the door and Lucy was reminded that he was an old man.

"No sonic screwdriver." Sarah Jane sighed.

"It's inside the TARDIS"

"And we can't get in, cause guess what? We stopped ourselves getting the key, oh that was clever."

"I just want to say" Jo spoke now, "I'm so glad I saw you again. And it was worth it, every second." The Doctor gave a small smile as she continued.

"Funny thing it, though, your funeral turns out to be our own."

"My funeral..."

"Finally" Lucy breathed and shoved the kids out of the way of the door so she could speak to them, "Jo, Sarah get in the bloody coffin. Its lead lined, you should be safe"

"Got it." Jo replied

"How much time have they got?" The Doctor asked the groske

"Big bang, ten seconds!"

"Come on," Santiago shouted, "you need to be quick Gran"

"10, 9, 8..."

The all ran away from the door, Lucy pulled the groske with her. "Can you not do that? It doesn't help."

"3, 2, 1"

The groske was right it was definitely a big bang. The doors were blown off and flames spat out for a couple of seconds, it was clear pretty much everything in that room had been destroyed. Once it had died down they moved from their hiding place.

"Well I would just like to make it clear," Lucy said with a grin, "that this time I am not responsible for this explosion."

"You're as bad as Ace." The Doctor muttered, "I'm making sure Jack knows to never let you meet."

"I'm taking that as a compliment" Lucy replied, "and that's not fair. You spoil all my fun. Why does everyone want to stop Ace and I meeting?"

The Doctor suddenly realised what had been said earlier and turned to look at Rani, "What do you mean, the Mona Lisa?"

"She escaped from her painting." Lucy replied for them, "She's rude and Italian, so basically just Italian. Now may I suggest we go let them out of your coffin?"

"Good idea" Clyde said and they walked into the destroyed room

"Smells like roast chicken." The Groske said and Lucy smirked,

"More like roast vulture to me."

"Now then." The Doctor said walking towards the coffin and pulling off the lid, "Smith and Jones" They looked up and started to laugh in relief. "The coffin was the trap. The coffin was the solution. That's so neat I could write a thesis. Well, come on then, you two out you get. I'll give you a lift home seeing as I..." he pulled the key out of his pocket and walked towards the TARDIS "have the key"

Sarah Jane and Jo climbed out of the coffin, still laughing and they followed the Doctor into the TARDIS. The teenagers said a quick goodbye to the groske and Lucy hung back.  
"Hurry up Lucy." The Doctor said leaning out of the TARDIS door.

"Well for a start we need our stuff and secondly, I need to speak to Colonel James and let him know what's happened here. Give me 10 minutes and I'll join you, I can't imagine it'll be hard finding him, he'll be running in this direction after an explosion like that. Actually you can go and I'll just drive back."

"Good point and you can get one of them to drive your car back, we'll wait." The Doctor agreed,

"You kids can go get our stuff" Sarah Jane said, "we'll wait here in the TARDIS, and do some more catching up."

Lucy quickly found Colonel James, as she had presumed he had been coming in her direction with a large group of UNIT soldiers.

"Colonel, if I may discuss with you what has happened in private." Lucy said politely but in a way that also said she wasn't asking, "If I remember correctly your office is just round the corner. The danger has passed so you do not need you soldiers."

"Very well," he replied, "you are all dismissed go back to whatever you were doing before. Miss Smith?"

They walked in silence to his office, Lucy automatically took the seat behind the desk.

"I'm sorry to tell you that Colonel Tai Karim died 5 minutes ago in the explosion. She was in league with the Shansheeth in an attempt to try to steal the TARDIS and the TARDIS key so they could stop death. While doing so they tried to kill myself, Miss Sarah Jane Smith, Mrs Jo Jones, Mr Santiago Jones, Mr Clyde Langer, Miss Rani Chandra and The Doctor."

"But I thought..."

"The Doctor was not dead as I, Miss Smith and Mrs Jones had been telling anyone who would listen. However that is beside the point. You've got a massive clear up on your hands, for a start the TARDIS rumour mill is full of people saying they don't believe the Doctor is dead, you need to make sure they know he's not. I've started work on that but an official announcement from those who were saying the opposite would help. You also need to clear up the funeral room, I'll be back in a couple of days, but you need to make sure that the Memory Weave is completely destroyed – don't use it for torture, get your researchers to see if they can use it to bring back memories instead for people suffering with Alzheimers. Also you'll need to arrange the funeral of Karim, I didn't spot a body and after that kind of explosion I doubt there is one. Make sure the people who need to know what happened know and the people who don't just know that the Doctor is not dead and he saved the day from the Shansheeth, no need to bring Karim's name into it. Is that understood?"

"Thank you Miss Smith," The colonel said with a respectful nod.

"For what?" Lucy was confused, "All I did was watch, the Doctor is the one who saved the day. I'm just doing the debrief because not only is the Doctor bad at them, his MO is running away and leaving others to work out what happened."

"For helping the Doctor and for not bringing Karim's name into disrepute, she used to be a good woman."

"Until the lure of space and the universe became too much and space vultures offered her a way out. She's not the first, Colonel, and she won't be the last as much as we hate the idea. We all see the wonders and the horror of the planet and the universe on a daily basis, is it any wonder she took the option to go and explore? We've lost some at Torchwood for the same reason. Now," She stood up, "you've got a clear up to start and my ride is waiting for me." She threw him her car keys, "You'll need to drive my car back down to Cardiff, there's nothing dangerous in it so you'll be safe. And I'll know if you put a tracker in it so don't even try. I want it back ASAP."

And with that she left the room and walked back down to the TARDIS where they were waiting for her.

"Sorted." She grinned and then spoke shyly "Can I?" Lucy gestured towards the blue box

The Doctor moved out of the way of the door.

"Lucy Smith, I think it is high time you came on board."

Lucy walked in and then span around.

"Oh you're right, she is gorgeous. Aren't you beautiful..." She ran down the step to look under the glass floor, and waved up at them. "Wow, nothing human made could ever fully replicate your beauty. They do a good job on the set but still..." She ran her hands over the walls and the different features. "oh you wondrous girl, you're so alive aren't you? So amazingly alive. I could spend infinity exploring you and I'd never get bored."

"Calm down." The Doctor said sticking his head over the side, "I agree with you but we don't want to give her a big head. Now I've got to get all you lot home and as you love her so much and it's obvious she likes you. I thought you might like to take the hand brake off."

If they didn't know better they would have thought she had teleported up the stairs to the console. Lucy was jumping up and down with excitement.

"Oh really? please, please, please, please, please?"

The Doctor laughed at the sight of her looking like a child high on sugar at the thought of it.

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it. Now when everyone else is ready and once I've set the co-ordinates I need you to pull that lever right in front of you."

Everyone apart from Santiago grabbed hold of something.

"Trust me Santiago." Jo said, "It's amazing but a bit of a bumpy ride, grab onto something." He did so and once the Doctor was sure everyone was ready he nodded at Lucy and she pulled the lever, immediately the sound started and they started to fly, the Doctor quickly jumping round the console keeping them steady before he pulled the lever again and they parked.

"Here we are." He said with a smile, "home."

Lucy and the kids grabbed their bags and walked out of the door, Santiago seemed to want to wait for his gran but Rani whispered something in his ear and he walked out with them.

"They'll be out in a bit." Lucy promised.

"It's just like you said." Santiago exclaimed in shock, "save the world and then home for dinner."

"Mr Smith." Rani said "You're in big trouble, those shansheeth were bad."

"It transpires, Rani, that you encountered a rogue element, and the wide wing of the high shansheeth nest sends its apologies."

"No way" Santiago was impressed, "on top of everything else, you've got a talking computer" Rani laughed, "that is it. I'm giving up"

"Technically it's a type of alien called a Xyloc, but yeah talking computer works as well." Lucy commented, "Mr Smith can you send a message to Jack to let him know that Colonel James will be returning my car later on today, or maybe tomorrow because of how late it is, and I'll be back soon. I've got some work to get done in London, so I may as well do it while I'm up here."

"Message sent."

"So come on Santiago" Lucy said sitting down on the sofa, "you know about our world, tell us about yours."

"Yeah" Rani agreed.

"Well..." he tried to work out what to say before grinning, "you should see Japan, it's about 80% forest and it goes on as far as the eye can see. It's endless..."

Sarah Jane, Jo and the Doctor walked out of the TARDIS smiling and looking at Lucy.

"Should I be worried?" Lucy asked half sarcastically

"What wonders have I got coming up?" The Doctor asked seriously and Lucy shrugged.

"No idea, I know one last Torchwood story and that's it. I suppose I'm kinda useless now. I mean I know bits of Earth's future but that's only because you've already saved the day." She gave him a smile that every one apart from the 906 year old Time Lord believed. She had been in such a good mood earlier and it was only now she realised that the next story she knew would be her last. "Thanks for letting me see her properly Doctor, and driving her – kind of. She's..." She sighed, "I'm not sure I've got the right word."

"No problem Lucy." He replied still with the small smile that said he knew something she didn't.

"I could do with your autograph, everyone's autograph." Lucy gave an awkward smile. Sarah Jane laughed.

"I was waiting for you to ask, come on. Pass the book here and we'll sign it for you."

Lucy pulled the book out of her bag and it quickly got passed around, everyone finding the page with their picture on it and Santiago signed on his gran's page.

The Doctor was the last to sign it.

"Well I've got to go." He passed the book back over and with it the TARDIS key

"What?" Lucy was confused, "Do you want me to give it to Jack? Because he's still got his old one, although as of yesterday he couldn't remember where he put it."

Everyone else in the attic understood what was happening and the teenagers couldn't help but laugh.

"Jack says you're one of his best and second in command of the whole operation."

"Yeah, what about it..."

"Lucy" Sarah Jane said with a smile, "the key's not for Jack."

"But..." Lucy twigged what was happening "but... ... I need to be here, Ianto. Doctor you promised I could save him!"

He walked down to her and grabbed her shoulders to stop her from panicking.

"And I'm keeping that promise. I said I would take you home, I'm also keeping that promise I just thought you might want to go the long way. The indirect route."

She looked at him hard, looking for anything in his eyes that might indicate he was lying before nodding.

"Ok, I mean if you're sure..."

"I'm sure I'm sure." He replied, "But we need to talk about the guns."

"I am not leaving Cecil here." She said sternly, "He stays with me, and the other one is a simple stun gun. Plus I've got a perception filter on them linked to my thoughts and a very nice race passed through – can't remember what they are called and they did some magic voodoo alien thing and now if anyone touches them they get burnt, they are psychically linked with me. It was an apology for one of their escaped prisoners putting me in a coma to try and find out the secrets of Torchwood. But I promise I won't use them unless it is completely and utterly necessary – like I think you're dead or they want to kill me."

"Fine" the Doctor sighed, "Jack warned me of that too. Welcome aboard Miss Smith."


	82. Chapter 82 - Impossible Astronaut part 1

**A/N: I just want to quickly say thank you to the reviews from last week and apologise that I didn't respond to them individually like I normally would. Real life has been a pain!**

Lucy was sitting in the diner waiting for the Doctor to return with his 'special straw'. She had laughed at him when he mentioned it and decided to stay and eat her burger. As she was sitting with her back to the door she didn't see them come in, but she recognised their voices.

"Who does the Doctor trust more than anyone else?" River asked

Lucy tried not to answer, she really did but she just couldn't help herself.

"Donna Noble or Sarah Jane," she thought, "or the Brig..." her face fell as she remembered the news that Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart had died, and the look on Kate and Nick's face as they tried to hold it together. It had only been a day or so after she had come out of her coma and as soon as she was more lucid and able to stay awake for more than a couple of minutes she had spoken to Nick and told him he wasn't allowed into the office for at least a week and was to spend this time with his family. The Brig had passed away quietly in his sleep but that didn't make it any less upsetting, she had even gone as far as locking him out of the Torchwood system so he wasn't tempted to come back early. She had already been in London visiting the pair of them when the news came through about the Doctor.

River was the only one who recognised the names.

"You had to name the three people who can't be here." She said walking over to where Lucy was sitting, Lucy looked up at them, and sighed.

"I'm going to guess that wasn't in my head." She said slightly awkwardly.

"No" Amy said harshly, "it wasn't. Who are you?"

"Nah" Lucy grinned, refusing to allow herself to think properly about this situation and the nagging voice in the back of her head. "There are more important questions than that."

"Like what?" Rory asked a bit scared of the answer and his wife's temper

"Like..." she pulled her autograph book out of her pocket, "can I have your autograph? You're under the 11th Doctor. River you're in 10's section cause that's when we first see you and I didn't want to change it later."

River took the book off her and quickly signed it.

"Lucy Smith." She sighed.

"River Song" Lucy responded in the same tone of voice, they both tried to stay serious but smiled at each other.

River passed the book over to Amy and Rory who signed it in shock.

"So are you just sight-seeing? Because by my calculations you shouldn't be here either."

Lucy gave a small nod knowing what River was implying, by now Children of Earth will have happened and if her plan worked she would be dead. Lucy pulled out a key from her pocket, "I'm on my way home, just going the long way round. I'm guessing you're here for the same reason as us."

"Number 1?" River asked, Lucy picked up the envelope and after checking it gave a small nod.

"Seems so."

"Hang on" Amy interrupted, "you're travelling with the Doctor?" she paused and Lucy nodded, "Where is he then?"

The back door opened and the Doctor walked out.

"Just popped out to get my special straw, it adds extra fizz."

River slapped him.

"This is low, even for you."

"I'm guessing that's for something I haven't done yet." He looked at Lucy who was trying not to laugh, "and you don't even know if I deserved it do you?"

"No idea, but going by Rory's reaction. Probably."

"Why Rory?" Amy asked and he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, why me?"

Lucy looked at them like they were mad.

"Because out of everyone in this room, excluding the man working here, you are by far the most trustworthy. Besides I like you, Roman Centurions are cool. The girl-who-waited annoyed me" she gave a small apologetic shrug "and he waited a _hell_ of a lot longer than you, so you really can't compare it. And I've so many bloody problems with River bloody Song that I hardly know where to start." River looked at her and offered up a silent challenge, Lucy accepted. "But I'll give it a go. The best man you've ever known? See I'm pretty sure I know who that is, so who are you? Wife or Murderer? Both? Willingly? Unwillingly? Jilted lover, killing him in a fit of rage? – But you can't be that because you still hold respect for this man. Immense respect, and that would go if he had jilted you. So whoever this man is you still love him and he loves you, at least as much as he can love you. You respect this man's views over everything and you were there at the end – or what you think of as the end."

The others were watching Lucy think this out loud, Rory was silently impressed about how she was able to take very minor details and use them to fill out highly likely theories. Not realising that she'd had years to think about it, and the help of the internet.  
Amy was watching all of this annoyed that this new women showed up and not only took part of what she had been thinking but expanded on those insignificant ideas and made them substantial. The Doctor just continued to eat his dinner and was trying to work out whether he could get away with eating Lucy's as well.

"Is that your beginning? Do you become River Song because of this experience or were you already her? If he is dead and you were in love at the time then of course there wouldn't be the bitterness that comes with separation – even less so as you killed him. But after this length of time? Ah but, you're a time traveller so that doesn't matter as much. Last time I saw you, you were older and it was at a wedding, you said you were married. Which I think has to be to the man you killed, because you still think of him as the best man you've ever known. And if you'd found someone else then you wouldn't say that. But does it fit the character? So you killed your husband and you still love him with all of your heart. Why did you kill him? Did you know what you were doing? Did you do it because you wanted to or because someone made you? Were you guilty by association and because you loved him put more blame on yourself then needed? Did you kill him by pulling the trigger? Did you kill him by _not_ pulling the trigger?"

River stared straight at her but gave nothing away.  
"OR are you simply a con-man looking for the ultimate hustle. Something to retire on." Lucy decided it was time to put a stop to all this theorising and stopped herself from rambling some more "One of the theories out there names you Master."  
At this River cracked a smile.

"You can't believe everything you read Miss Smith. That would be rather stupid wouldn't it?" She raised her eyebrow mockingly and Lucy replied in kind

"I don't know, there is more than one way of finding out someone's name after all, especially for a time traveller."

"Back tracking to the bit of the conversation I could follow" Rory interrupted, the Doctor in contrast had just decided to eat Lucy's burger, and when he'd finish that he would start on the chips. "You said I was the most trustworthy out of everyone..."

Lucy understood what he was getting at.

"I trust the Doctor with my life, but you'd be stupid to forget Rule Number 1: The Doctor lies."

"And you?" Amy pressed, still annoyed that she had been so easily shoved aside as unimportant.

"I'm Torchwood." Lucy shrugged, "Jack's Torchwood admittedly, but still Torchwood and you can't really get more Torchwood, ignoring Jack - and in this case most people do. To trust me over Rory and would be immensely stupid. I'm probably just above River on the scale of trustworthiness, which isn't saying much." At Amy's gaze she sighed and continued. "I'm not saying you shouldn't trust me – or River – but that neither of us are going to tell you everything and I'll have back up back up plans that you and the Doctor won't like but it will get us out alive. Besides the Doctor trusts me enough to let me travel with him, that's got to stand for something." She pointed out and Amy grudgingly nodded her agreement.  
"For as long as I am alive I will do everything I can to protect every innocent I can." Lucy continued trying to win Amy and Rory over. "But I'm Torchwood, there's no getting around that. I used to be a simple geek and then I was a field agent and then I don't know – Jack was an idiot and gave me a stupid promotion and I found that it fitted me. For god's sake I'm on first name terms with pretty much all of the royal family, I've got their private number's in my phone – if that doesn't give me some credentials I don't know what will. I'm just saying that... ..." she stumbled trying to find the right words but quickly failed, "Trust me, Rory you are a lot more trustworthy than me, I'm not above using people to do what's needed. But my view of what's needed is shaped around the fundamental values of the Doctor. Oh and a word of advice, don't touch my weapons, it will end with you getting hurt, and we wouldn't want that now." She gave a predatory grin, "would we?"

Amy glared at her and then looked at the Doctor who was continuing to eat Lucy's chips and looking at her exasperated. "You've replaced us with a psycho!"

"Tone it done Lucy," He said tiredly, "you weren't this bad with Rose and as you put it she 'nearly destroyed the multiverse.' What's Amy done?"

Lucy pretended to think and shrugged and sighed.

"She hasn't done anything. I'm just in a weird mood, I have no idea what's going to happen but I do know that this is an episode. You, River, Amy and Rory all summoned here, there's no doubt about it. If it wasn't for the stupid rift I would be watching this at home, in the lounge witting on the sofa eating my dinner. I'd probably also know why River slapped you."

He sighed.

"Go play in the TARDIS, she's moved your room again. I still don't know why you like it so much. She's also setting up a shooting range for you – I'm not sure how happy I am about that."

Lucy jumped up off her seat.

"It means I get to explore more. I found Jamie's bedroom yesterday. I've still not found the garden or the swimming pool, or the library. And she set it up because she's amazing and beautiful. Plus she knows I enjoy it and it helps me relieve stress. You can blame Jack for that."

With that she left and they were about to start talking again before she came back.

"By the way, River, once we've dealt with whatever this is, you and I need to have a shooting competition."

"Definitely. It'll be good to see if the famous Lucy Smith and Cecil are as good as people say." River nodded.

"Brilliant, 50p and bragging rights?"

"I think I can stretch that far." She replied with a smirk.

"Ok, I'll see you later. Also Amy I wasn't trying to be harsh earlier. Honestly, you'll get burnt if you touch my guns, safety precautions and all that. Oh and you won't be able to find my phone either... with all the numbers on it that's definitely safe." With that she properly left and started exploring the TARDIS again, searching for her room and the brand new shooting range.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

She meandered for a while, finding the shooting range and a couple of old bedrooms – one had Susan's name on the door so she refused to even see if it would open; some things were private. She also found a climbing wall next to her bedroom; Lucy wasn't quite sure why although she decided that once this was done she'd definitely have a go and see if she could get the Doctor up there as well.

She lay on her bed for a while looking at the photos of her and Becky and her and Ianto on the wall. Finally she got her phone out and called Ianto, he picked up on the third ring.

"Hi Lucy" Just his voice made her smile, and she calmed down from the mood she was in earlier "I spoke to you a couple of minutes ago what's up?"

"Nothing, except you didn't speak to me. I'm currently in the TARDIS." She laughed, "It's good to know the Doctor gets me back at the right time. I would have called earlier but I've only just got my phone soniced"

She could hear him working out what was happening, "Yeah, you got back the day after the funeral, which was only a couple of days ago. You'd said the Doctor dropped you off there so you could do your debrief in London then things happened and you came back to Cardiff instead. You're currently on your way back after finally having that debrief about the Doctor's funeral as well as a meeting abut Torchwood London, William has agreed that you can stay in Cardiff for the majority of the week, but you do need to spend a day or so there each week until it's fully running, but Nick is doing a good job. He also says closer to being fully operational he wants you there most weeks but once you've got it up and running you should be fine in Cardiff."

"Thanks for letting me know," she said with a laugh, "although you shouldn't have done, cause I don't know that yet. But it means I know where I can aim my argument and what ground I'll lose in the run up. So I can plan for that."

Ianto waited for her to say more but she didn't.

"How's things in the TARDIS then? I mean you've already told me but _you've_ not told me." If it was anyone else she knew they would be getting confused but Ianto just took it all in his stride.

"It's great, I mean mad. I saw a sun being born a couple of days ago. An actual sun come into life, although life isn't the right word. And the Doctor was telling me all about the people who are going to live on the planets surrounding it and their culture. In the height of summer all families get together and party in respect to the summer god for all her work and to thank her, as well as to welcome in their other god, the winter god and to ask him to protect them over the coming months; the same in the winter but the other way round. It's got such an odd cycle that they only have summer and winter and even when most people on the planet don't believe in either god they still do it out of respect for their ancestors who did and because it is the only time that the whole world gets together. Even if there are wars happening over those days all the fighting stops and they celebrate life and living. Isn't that amazing?" She gushed down the phone, playing with her plait, grinning at Ianto's laugh down the phone.

"Sounds amazing Cariad. Have you got many photos?"

"Hundreds" She replied "I'm sure I've already bored you with them."

"Not at all" he said and she could hear the smile.

"Hmm..." Lucy replied

"Ok, just a bit but you love them so much and you've got a different story that goes with most of them. I can't take that away from you. Plus I've seen the ones you've not taken yet." He paused, "Which is an odd thought."

"Time travel plays with your brain, it's best not to think about it." Lucy laughed, "How do you think I've coped these past few years?"

"You don't know everything. You'd be bored if you did, besides you cope because you are amazing." She laughed again.

"You flatter me too much. You're the amazing one and you deserve the universe, you should be out here seeing all there is to see while I stay in 'sunny' Cardiff."

"I think you deserve this trip much more than me and don't forget you are currently on your way back to sunny Cardiff, we've discovered a blue sky behind the grey clouds today for a couple of hours."  
"Wow, that is an achievement," She deadpanned, "I'm so glad I'm going to be there to witness it."The TARDIS started moving and Lucy couldn't help the grin and the flutter of excitement at the thought of finding somewhere else to explore.

"We're on the move again Yan, so I'm going to have to go in a bit."

"Go explore the stars Lucy, and love every minute of it" He sighed, "Because when you get back I'll make sure you'll never want to leave our new place ever again."

"Are you sure Jack's the only one guilty of sexual harassment in our office?" Lucy laughed

"Pretty certain." He replied but she could hear the laughter in his voice as well.

"And is that when you next see me or when I next see you?" She continued teasing him, wanting to go see where they were going but also never wanting to get off the phone with him.

"Both" he said completely seriously, "I mean it Lucy, I love you and I know you're having the time of your life and you've already come home to me, but _you_ haven't yet. I miss you."

"I miss you too Ianto." She sighed, "I met Amy and Rory and River earlier, some of the Doctor's companions. And it was weird, it's the first time something's happened which I've known is an episode but I don't know it and I got angry at the rift – really angry. I should have been at home watching it, or at the care home with Becky. Either way I shouldn't be living it. But then I realised I wouldn't have you in my life. It's just so annoying and I wish you were here."

"Me too, I wish I was with you right now to hold you tight and tell you everything's going to be alright." He said and she could hear the love and worry in his voice. "How's the nightmares been?"

She bit her lip trying to work out the best way to reply.

"Luuucy" he said stretching her name out worriedly and warningly when he hadn't heard a reply.

"I love your beautiful welsh vowels."  
"Answer the question Caraid." He said but she could hear him exaggerating his accent knowing how much she liked it.

"God your accent is sexy." She laughed before turning serious, "We've had a couple of adventures and it's been fine. I was so tired I don't think I dreamt at all, the other nights haven't been brilliant but they've not been terrible. I think the old girl is helping, she's incredibly soothing." The lights flashed and Lucy knew that was the TARDIS's way of saying 'no problem'.

"I've woken up before it gets too bad instead of getting trapped in them like normal. I've got a couple of tablets in my bag so I'll take them if needs be."

"Not if needs be Lucy, take them."

"Hmm..."

"Promise me you'll take them."

"Ianto..."

"Promise me Lucy." He repeated and she sighed.

"Sure, I promise I'll take them."

"Ahh, that's you just getting in, _"I'm in here on the phone Lu_." He called

"How come I'm not at work? I know it's your weekend off but..." Lucy asked confused, "No don't tell me, I'll find out eventually. I've got to go anyway." They sat in silence for a bit before Lucy sighed, "I love you Ianto."

"I love you too Cariad. Enjoy the stars, and don't forget I've got two memory cards worth of photos that you need to continue taking. Call me later yeah?"

"Definitely. Bye."

"Bye Lu." And with that Lucy hung up and got up off the bed.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

She walked to the door and put her hand against the TARDIS wall.

"I don't suppose you could give me a shortcut to the control room could you?" The machine hummed and another door appeared, "Thanks" Lucy replied before walking through it and finding herself on the main corridor.

She walked into the main room to see the Doctor and River looking at a screen.

"So what's happening?" She asked

"Canton Everett Delaware III" The Doctor replied and then saw the phone still in her hands "Is everything ok?"

"What?" She looked at the phone too and then shrugged and shoved it back into her pocket, "yeah everything's fine. Sorry, just felt about homesick. But you get me back on time so that's good."

"I'm glad, I can take you back now if you want." He offered seriously, and Lucy stared at him, "Or I could not, yeah that'd be best." He turned back to the screen, "So remind me whose president in 1969?"

"Richard Milhous Nixen. Vietnam, Watergate, there's some good stuff too." River said as she looked at the scanner.

"Not enough" The Doctor grumbled

"Hippie."  
"Archaeologist."

Lucy moved to go stand next to Amy and Rory.

"I just want to say sorry for the way I acted earlier. I promise I'm not normally like that."  
Amy looked at her not sure of what to do but Rory elbowed her.

"It's ok" She said although the three of them knew she didn't fully mean it. "The Doctor trusts you. I just wasn't expecting him to find someone else to travel with."

"I wasn't expecting to ever travel with him so don't worry." Lucy responded with a smile. The Doctor interrupted them.

"If you've finished?" They all nodded, "As I don't know what I'm getting into for once, I'm being discreet, putting the engines on silent." He said pulling a lever and running round to the other side of the console, a loud whining sound appeared and Amy and Rory covered their ears, Lucy just smirked. River calmly walked up and pulled it down and pressed a different button and stopped the sound, the Doctor ran back round.

"Did you do something?"

"No, just watching." River responded. He looked at them and decided to ignore it.

"Putting the outer shell on invisible. Haven't done this in a while. Biiig drain on the power"

"You can turn the TARDIS invisible?" Rory asked

"Ha!" He pulled a different lever and all the lights turned on.

"Very nearly" River replied, turning the lights off.

"Did you touch something?" The Doctor asked her.

"Just admiring your skills, sweetie."  
Lucy leaned in to Amy.

"Aaand kiss." Amy had to look away so she wouldn't laugh. She was trying not to like this new comer on her ground but she agreed that the Doctor and River did look like they were about to lean in for a kiss."

"Good, you might learn something. Okay," he pulled the scanner down to see what was happening outside, "Now I can't check the scanner, it doesn't work while we're cloaked. Um..." He tried to work out what to do "Just give us a mo." He ran towards the door and they all followed

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"You lot wait a moment. We're in the middle of the most powerful city, in the most powerful country on Earth. Let's take it slow." And with that he walked out of the front doors, Lucy looked at River who was immediately trying to get the scanner working.

"But the Doctor said..." Amy pointed out.

"I know" River replied, "Bless. AH! Here we go."

"The Oval Office" The Doctor was saying walking slowly backwards, "I was looking for the, er, Oblong Room"

Lucy couldn't help but laugh.

"That's never going to work, it's almost as bad as some of the stuff Nine used to say. 'The prime minster is an alien in disguise.' Why he thought that was ever going to work I don't know. I mean he was right but still..."

The Doctor walked into the TARDIS, but not before knocking a light over and the security being called. He quickly found himself being held on the floor by Canton.

"Have you got my scanner working yet?" He shouted, knowing they could hear him.

"Oh I hate him" River muttered

"No you don't" He replied. "River make her blue again!" He shouted and River quickly did as she was told causing the security to stand back in surprise as the TARDIS appeared in the Oval Office. Lucy was waiting impatiently by the door.

"Well come on then... Oval Office, you can't tell me you've never wanted to see that."

"What about your guns?" Amy asked her and River, River just shrugged but Lucy replied

"Mine have got a small perception filter on them linked to my thoughts, payment for being trapped in a coma and nearly cost me my sanity. Means that they're not invisible just un-noticeable, that's the defence on my phone too, although it's a lot stronger. Besides they'll get burnt if they try to take them off me."

They listened to the conversation outside the door for a second trying to work out if it was safe.

"...you think you can just shoot me?"

River opened the door and walked out, deciding to remind the Doctor of one simple fact,

"They're Americans!" All guns were now pointing at her

"Don't shoot. Definitely no shooting" The Doctor said getting out of the chair and putting his hands up in surrender.

Rory and Amy walked out next, Rory babbling the entire time.

"No need to shoot us either. Very much not in need of getting shot. Look we've got our hands up"

Lucy smirked and walked out last pulling the door shut behind her, Canton looked at her expecting her to stay something as well, but she just raised an eyebrow at him.

"You could _try_ to shoot me." He gave her a small smile before turning back to the Doctor and the President

"Who the hell are you?" One of the agents asked

"Sir you need to stay back" Canton advised the president before walking forward to talk to the Doctor.

"But who are they and what is that box?" Nixon had to ask

"It's a police box. Can't you read?" The Doctor was offended

"Most police boxes can't just appear, Doc." Lucy pointed out before looking straight at Canton, "I'll make this easier for you. Torchwood, security number 37584 Foxtrot Alpha 79." She relaxed against the wall of the TARDIS. "There that's me dealt with. When you call them to check up on me, tell them Code 763.11 Delta and I'll fill in the paper work when I get back."

One of the agents had got out a piece of paper.

"I'm sorry ma'am could you repeat that again so I can have it checked out. What was your security number?"

"3-7-5-8-4 Foxtrot Alpha 7-9, and its code 7-6-3.1-1 Delta. You want to see if you can speak to a Captain Harkness." Lucy repeated "If not anyone else will do."

"Thank you ma'am. If I could ask you to not move while I check it out and then if it passes I will get you a security pass."

"No problem." Lucy said with a smile before looking at the Doctor and the others, "What? I've got a pass for this kind of place and a code to let me use it before I'm born. Damn right I'm going to use it."

The Doctor thought for a bit then shrugged, "Fair enough, anyway. I'm your new undercover agent from Scotland Yard. Codename: The Doctor. These are my top operatives, The Legs, The Nose, Mrs Robinson and..." he stumbled, "you know it's a good thing you've got a code because I have no idea what your codename would be? The plait? But that doesn't quite work. Girl with the guns? But I don't like guns and it would scare these lovely men."

"Lucy works fine Doctor." Lucy said with a smile.

"Who are you?" President Nixon asked

"Nah, boring question. 'Who's phoning you?' That's interesting because Canton III is right that's a girl's voice. Which means there is only one place in America she can be phoning from."

"Where?"

"Do not engage with the intruder, Mr Delaware." The head agent said

"You heard everything I heard, it's simple enough. Give me five minutes, I'll explain." He sat back down in the chair, "on the other hand lay a finger on me, or my friends, and you'll never, ever know."

"How did you get it in here?" Canton asked pointing at the TARDIS, "I mean you didn't carry it in."

"Clever eh?"

"Love it."

"Do not compliment the intruder!"

"Five minutes?"  
"Five" The Doctor confirmed

"Mr President that man is a clear and present danger to..."

"Mr President," The ex-FBI agent interrupted "that man walked in here with a big blue box and four of his friends, one claiming to be Torchwood. And that's the man they walked passed, one of them's worth listening to. I say we give him five minute, see if he delivers."

"Thanks Canton" The Doctor grinned

"If he doesn't, I'll shoot him myself"

The Doctor pulled a face, "not so thanks."

"Sir I cannot recommend..." The agent tried again

"Shut up, Mr Peterson!" He looked at Canton and nodded , "All right."

"Five minutes."

The guns were all lowered and Amy, Rory and River all brought down their arms.

The Doctor looked excited and the thought of being able to give orders to an FBI team from behind the desk at the Oval Office "I'm going to need a SWAT team ready to mobilise, street level maps covering all of Florida, a pot of coffee, 12 Jammie Dodgers and a fez."

"Get him his maps" Canton order and the Doctor's face fell.

Why they were waiting for the maps to come the agent who'd walked off to call Torchwood walked back in with a security pass.

"It all checks out sir, she's Torchwood no doubt about it."

He handed over the pass which Lucy quickly wore and lowered the perception filters on her guns now she was officially allowed to wear them.

"Captain Harkness sends his regards and he agrees that you're filling out the paperwork when you get back and he hopes you enjoy your trip."  
"Thank you" Lucy replied, she was going to say more but the maps appeared. "Ahh, Doctor you've got your maps."

"Brilliant." He said getting up off the chair and grabbing the from the poor agent, "Spread them out over the floor."

"Why are we looking at maps?" Lucy asked as she took some off him.

"The little girl was asked two questions and she didn't answer the second."

Lucy thought while she was helping sort all the maps out before realising what the Doctor was getting at.

"Now that's clever."

"I know."

"You do realise I haven't heard what the little girl said don't you."

"Ahh..."

"Why Florida?" Canton asked while they were looking at the maps, Amy and Rory weren't quite sure what they were looking for so decide just to sit on the sofa out of the way. River and Lucy were scanning them as quickly as possible, but there were a lot to look at.

"Florida is where NASA is, NASA is where the spaceman is, she mentioned a spaceman. Also..." he paused, "I'm following up another lead."

Amy walked over to River.

"A spaceman like the one we saw at the lake?"

"Maybe." River replied, "Probably" She amended as she got up.

Amy stared into space for a bit before saying quietly.

"I remember."

"Amy?" Rory asked worried, "What do you remember?"

"I don't know I just," She moved as though she was going to throw up and Rory noticed instantly.

"Amy? What's wrong?"

"I don't know I just?"

"Amy?" River asked

"Are you all right?" The Doctor said as he walked across the room to another map.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little sick."

"You've gone quite pale." Lucy added worried for the companion.

"I'll be fine," Amy said walking up to Mr Peterson, "Sorry is there a toilet or something?"

"I'm sorry ma'am. While this procedure is ongoing you must remain within the Oval Office."

"Shut up and take her to the restroom." Canton said

Amy was escorted out and Rory went to follow her but he was held back.

"She'll be ok Rory." Lucy said as she walked up behind him. "It'll probably just be a bug. I could go with them if you want." She flashed him her pass, "it's not like they could stop me."

Rory thought for a bit but sighed and shook his head.

"Amy wouldn't like it. Thanks anyway."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you think of Lucy and the Doctor travelling together. These episodes took me a while to write but they are all good fun and Lucy is enjoying travelling the universe!  
I love all of you, long term reviewers/readers and new people who keep popping up.  
Rea**


	83. Chapter 83 - Impossible Astronaut part 2

**Sorry I'm a day late. We were out yesterday and then I slept all day today once I got back (only up now because I need to go to work in a bit)**

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"Your five minutes are up"

"Yeah? And where's my fez?" The Doctor replied showing that he didn't really care. Canton looked at the President for permission to continue working on it and Nixon gave a small nod.

After another couple of minutes the phone rang and Amy walked back in.

"The Kid?"

"Should I answer it?" Nixon was unsure what to do.

"Here!" The Doctor crowed, pointing at a place on the map, "the only place in the United States she could be calling from, obvious when you think about it."

"You sir are a genius." Canton breathed

"It's a hobby" The Doctor replied trying to be modest but failing.

"Try not to inflate his overly large head." Lucy added, "He's going to struggle to walk through doors soon."

"Mr President, answer the phone."

Nixon picked up the phone and set the recorder going as well

"Hello? This is President Nixon"

"It's here," The voice on the other side of the phone said, "The spaceman's here!" She sounded really scared, "It's going to get me. It's going to eat me"

The Doctor grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair.

"No time for a SWAT team, Mr President, tell her help is on its way." Amy, Rory and River all ran into the TARDIS. "Canton on no account follow me into this blue box and close the door on your way in." He also ran inside, Lucy hung back and waited by the door.

"You coming?"

Canton hadn't needed anything to persuade him but it definitely helped, he walked into the TARDIS and shut the door behind him.

He was immediately thrown by what he found in the TARDIS, the Doctor ignored it and kept talking to explain to Amy and Rory what happened and where they were going. Lucy let him talk and stayed by the door waiting for Canton to ask his questions.

"Jefferson isn't a girl's name. It's not her name, either." He was spinning round the console enjoying himself. "Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton. River?"

"Surnames of three of America's founding fathers." She replied instantly helping him fly the TARDIS

"Lovely fellas, two of them fancied me." The Doctor added.

Canton turned round still trying to understand what he was seeing.

"You ok?" Lucy asked, "Coping with it all?"

He didn't respond and the Doctor kept talking.

"You see the president asked two questions, where she was and what was her name, she was answering where."

"It's bigger on the inside." Canton said still trying to understand it but hoping that if he said it out loud it would suddenly make sense, it didn't.

"Yeah, I had noticed that." Lucy said with a smirk. "But she is beautiful isn't she. Ignore the fact that your brain is shouting at you that this shouldn't be possible and just look at her, isn't she gorgeous? The best ship in the universe."

"Now where would you find three big historical names like that?" The Time Lord asked,

"I don't know" Rory shrugged in response, "where?"

"Here." He landed the ship and they all ran to the door. "Lucy are you dealing with it?" He asked, gesturing at the American and she nodded.

"Yeah why not, I'm the newest." The others all left the TARDIS and Lucy looked at Canton.

"You ready to go outside yet?"

"I... er..." He replied and Lucy shrugged

"Fair enough, but try to hurry up. I want to go and join all the fun."

After a minute or so he took a deep breath and nodded.

"Ok. You're right as well. It is beautiful"

They walked outside and he was once again thrown as they were no longer in the Oval Office like he was expecting. Actually he didn't know what he was expecting, but whatever it was, it wasn't this.

"We've moved. How can we have moved?"

"You haven't even got to space travel yet?" The Doctor tutted, "Honestly I expected better of you."

"Well we were too busy admiring how beautiful the TARDIS is. Besides he wouldn't have believed it anyhow, it's the kind of thing you need to experience."

The Doctor thought then nodded.

"Good reason and fair enough." He immediately went back to exploring and Lucy turned back to Canton.

"We disappear there and appear here, don't ask me how to explain how because I have no idea. Oh and we don't just travel in space we travel in time."

"Time?"

Lucy nodded.

"Yup. The code I gave the agent was one that clarifies me as an Agent of Torchwood in the future but currently travelling through time, and then I specified who I was travelling with, that's why it ended in .11. I've not been born yet and I won't be for another 20 years or so. Amy and Rory haven't been born either and I have no idea about River." She could see him thinking about it, and continued to talk.

"So you've got two choices, either stay in the TARDIS and sit this adventure out until we come back for you." He pulled a face, "OR you could come exploring and find out where the little girl is, why and how she's been calling the president and what the spaceman that's coming to get her is. The choice is yours." She left the door to the TARDIS open and Canton grabbed the handle and pulled it shut. "Good choice. Let's go find the others."

"So it's a box that's bigger on the inside and travels through time and space."

"Yup"

"How long have Torchwood had this?"

"It's not mine it's the Doc's. I'm just travelling with him, we all are."

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

They found the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River by some space suits. The Doctor was wearing a space helmet and grinning madly, Lucy couldn't resist it. She grabbed her camera out of her pocket.  
"Say cheese." The Doctor gave her a thumbs up and she quickly took the photo before putting her camera back into her pocket.

"You two back with us then?" He asked as he pulled the helmet off, "look at how cool all this stuff is Lucy!"  
"Very cool" She grinned back, "This the stuff from the space program?"

"Yeah" River replied, "oh and as you didn't hear the phones are cut off."

"I noticed that too, so how is she calling the White House?" Lucy's spare hand rested close to the gun on her right hip.

"No guns Lucy you promised." The Doctor pointed out.

"Yeah I know I did, but this one is a standard issue Torchwood stun gun..."

"No" he repeated

"Fine" She pretended to sulk, "I'm going to go look over there, and if there is a huge scary spaceman monster I'm not going to use either of my guns. Even though I've got a stun gun so that wouldn't kill it and would just make sure I have enough time to get away."

"That's my girl." The Doctor replied, "Let me know if you find anything interesting. River you see what that is, Amy you go with her. Canton, we're going to look over here."

"Looks like you're with me then Rory." Lucy said

He looked over at Amy, worried and Lucy laughed.

"I've got a boyfriend, don't worry I have no plan at all to do anything that might cause him to leave me, I love him too much and I'm much too selfish to do that. No matter how cute you are." She winked at him before turning serious "If you don't want to help don't worry. I'm used to being out in the field." She walked away and turned a corner, Rory still wasn't quite sure what to do but shrugged and followed her.

"I'm coming Lucy."

She waited for him and he quickly caught up.

"So what are we looking for, and what's Torchwood? How come it got you a free pass around the White House?"

"It didn't. I got a security pass but there were still places I wouldn't have been able to go, due to being the wrong time. If I need to I can walk round freely in my time although I never have. What it does do is buy me a certain level of respect. Even in this day and age Torchwood are known for only taking the best – I honestly just lucked out." She shrugged, "In all your years as a Roman Centurion, are you telling me you never once met an overly flirtatious captain who couldn't die?"

It was Rory's turn to shrug now.

"I don't know, maybe, it rings a bell. But I try to forget what happened."

"Fair enough. Anyway if you did, that was my boss, Captain Jack Harkness and I can only apologise for the things he almost certainly said. He's the top guy and I'm the number two, for reasons I still can't understand even though I've been in the role for about 8 months. It's a UK organisation funded by the monarchy..."

"That's why you have their numbers" Rory worked out

"Yeah, plus I've become good friends with Kate but that's beside the point. When I say Jack is my boss I mean that in the loosest terms. I base myself in Cardiff with Torchwood 3 and he's the boss there, William wants me to run shop in London but we like Wales, plus staying in Cardiff means I can go out onto the field instead of staying in an office. That's just not me, I like the danger a bit too much."

"So what does Torchwood do?" Rory asked as they started to look through the boxes,

"We're the alien defence for the UK. UNIT is for all of the united nations, but we're more specific but we work with the other groups when needed. 3 is in charge of the rift in Cardiff, a rift in time and space. A bit like the cracks in the wall only it doesn't destroy the universe."

"Sounds like one hell of a job." He commented and Lucy grinned

"Yeah, I love it. Listen if and when you and Amy decide you don't want to live on the TARDIS any more, they'll always be a job waiting for you. I mean it Rory."

He looked at her and smiled.

"Thanks. I'll let Amy know, but we're planning on staying a while, even if the Doctor does want to get rid of us. I don't think Amy'll let him."

"Fair enough." She took another look round before shrugging, "nothing over here, let's go back and join the others."

"Found anything?" The Doctor asked as they walked over, they just shook their heads

"More stuff for the space mission, but nothing else that jumped out as a problem. Any idea why this stuff is here?"

"None at all"

"Doctor? Look at this" River called them over as she moved a lid to what appeared to be sewage tunnels.

"So where does that go?" He asked and River shrugged before using her scanner to find out. Lucy supposed it fitted, an archaeologist having such a powerful scanner, it would tell them where they would and wouldn't find artefacts.

"There's a network of tunnels running under here."

"Any life signs?" Lucy asked

"Nothing that's showing up." River replied

"Those are the worst kind." The Doctor said but Lucy was thinking of something else.

"Nothing at all?" She asked for clarification, River nodded not quite sure where it was leading. "But there should be rats and spiders and other creatures living down there, unless you've preset the scanner to ignore them."

"No" River said slowly, "I haven't done that." She looked through the hole slightly more worried than before.

"So whatever is or was down there has eaten or killed everything, all the bugs, everything." Lucy continued, "And it was recent enough that no wildlife has come back. Which can only have been within the past few minutes. Or it does it often enough that they stopped coming back."

"Definitely the worst kind of life signals then." Amy added and Lucy nodded before looking at River

"What are we waiting for? Let's go."

"Be careful" The Doctor warned them as River got ready to drop.

"Careful?" River scoffed, "tried that once, ever so dull"

"Shout if you get in trouble." He said to her.

"Don't worry I'm quite the screamer. Now there's a spoiler for you" She said as she lowered herself into the tunnel.

"Definitely too much information." Lucy said with a slight shiver, "I have no interest at all in knowing about anyone's sex life apart from mine and Ianto's. Although Jack still insists on telling us." She moved to where River was keeping an eye on her until she knew it was safe to join her

"Doctor?" Canton asked, "What's going on here?"

"Nothing." He said quickly, "She's just a friend."

"Yeah." Rory said sarcastically, "I think he was talking about the possible alien incursion."

"You were very quick to assume we were still talking about sex Doctor." Lucy grinned, "Anyone would think you've got something to hide."

"Ok" The Doctor grinned, trying to hide his embarrassment at the mistake, Lucy smiled at how childish he could be before also lowering herself into the tunnels and joining River.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"I think we embarrassed him a bit." She said with a grin, before pulling out Cecil. "I personally think that these non-life signs are a danger enough that I should have Cecil out. I don't think you disagree with me and he's not here to tell us off."

"As if you would listen." River retorted, "I would get mine out but I need the scanner and the torch. You'll have to cover me."

"I can do that."

Lucy suddenly shot something and stumbled backwards, River brought the torch up immediately. "What was that for? Did you see anything?"

"No," Lucy was confused, "I don't think so."  
"So why did you shoot?"

"I don't know, maybe I saw something move. I mean there is supposed to be nothing alive down here..." River looked at her concerned and Lucy could understand why, her head started pounding and she winced and started rubbing at her eyes and forehead as a migraine appeared from nowhere.  
"What's wrong?" River asked concerned.  
"Migraine" Lucy replied with her eyes shut to block out the light in an attempt to make it go away. "Maybe I won't be of any use." She opened her eye a crack to look at River though, "My head is drumming."

"Maybe I should call you Master."

"Yeah maybe." It was a feeble joke but it made them both smile a bit. "You got anything for headaches? 51st century must have some stuff."

"I'll have a look, I should do. God knows the Doctor causes enough of them." She said having a quick look. "Ah ha, here you go. It melts on your tongue in seconds" She handed over a small purple tablet to Lucy who didn't even question it. Before it had a chance to work properly a voice called down to them.

"Hang on River, Lucy. I'm coming too." Rory didn't sound overly impressed by the idea of joining the two of them but he did as he was asked.

By the time he had joined them Lucy's migraine was in the process of dying and she felt comfortable opening her eyes again.

"You ok?" Rory asked her, quickly falling into the role of nurse.  
"Yeah I'm fine..." he didn't believe her. "Honestly I'm fine." She repeated "I had a migraine appear from nowhere, River gave me a magic tablet and now it's almost gone and I'm fine again." She stopped leaning against the wall and stood up properly, "So which was are we going? River?"

"That way?" River pointed and shrugged. They started walking straight ahead in silence, Rory in the middle and Lucy bringing up the rear with her torch and Cecil as defence.

After a minute or so of walking Rory broke the silence.

"I keep thinking I hear things."

River was too busy looking at her scanner, so Lucy replied.

"It'll be fine Rory. River and I are both sharp shots, we'll protect you. To the best of our knowledge there is nothing living down here apart from us. No life signs remember"

"Yeah that wasn't really what I was saying"

"It's interesting." River mumbled

"What is?" Lucy replied

"Well these tunnels are old, really old. How can these tunnels be here and nobody notice them?"

"Always the archaeologist." Lucy sighed and River turned round to flash her a grin before turning the corner to find a door.

"Brilliant." Lucy breathed, "A door in tunnels that are somehow hidden from humanity. Hey River, we're not so far down that we've bumped into an old silurian hide out are we?"

"No not yet." She replied, "We're a fair few miles above that."

"It's a maintenance hatch isn't it?" Rory asked, "I mean it looks like a maintenance hatch."

River tried to open it.

"It's locked. Why do people always lock things?"

"What's through there?" Rory almost hated the fact he had to ask but he had to know the answer

"No idea." River replied

"But it's locked and why would people who can build tunnels and stop humans finding them need to lock a door?" Lucy asked for Rory's sake. "What's so important that they have to try and stop any humans finding it even if they happen to stumble across these tunnels?"

"Something bad?"

"Almost definitely" River said while she worked on opening it

"You're going to open it aren't you." He sighed, knowing nothing he did would make her change her mind.  
"It's locked." River responded as though that explained everything, and it did, at least to Lucy anyway.

"Is this sensible?" Rory asked loudly

"God I hope not." River smirked

"Where would be the fun in doing anything sensible?" Lucy added, "Live a little Rory."

"You and the Doctor" he muttered, "I can kind of picture it."

"Oi!" Lucy said loudly, spinning round with Cecil still raised in her hands "I have a boyfriend, I happen to love Ianto. Thank you very much."

"Not you." He said bringing his arms up in defence. "Although I do want to meet this boyfriend, and find out how he copes. I mean him and River, can't you?"  
"I don't want to even think about it. I've already been scarred for life by some fanart and fanfic that I found by accident. I don't need you to put the image in my mind again."

Rory tried to work out what she meant and then decided to ignore it, he had another question he wanted answered.

"What did you mean? What you said to Amy, there's a worse day coming for you?"

"When I first met the Doctor, a long, long time ago" River said sadly, "he knew everything about me, imagine that. Impressionable young girl and suddenly this man just drops out of the sky and he's clever and mad and wonderful and knows every last thing about her. Imagine what that does to a girl"

"I don't really have to" Rory said equally quietly and sadly.

Lucy decided to stay quiet as she knew what River was talking about and worse she knew how this 'worse day' was going to happen. She'd already seen it happen.

"Trouble is, it's all back-to-front. My past is his future. Every time we meet I know him and he knows me less. I live for the days when I see him but I know that every time I do he'll be one step further away. The day is coming when I'll look into that man's eyes," She breathed, "my Doctor, and he won't have the faintest idea who I am." She had almost finished breaking the lock on the door "I could ask Lucy what happens, she knows. I can see it in her eyes the same way I can see it in the Doctor's but they won't tell me. In the same way I won't tell the Doctor what's going to come and Lucy doesn't tell anyone." The door finally whirred to life and opened so River looked up at the pair of them. "I think it's going to kill me."

Lucy stepped forward and put her hand on River's shoulder, offering comfort and a silent apology, the other woman accepted it and then stood up and shrugged it off.

"So," She said in a much cheerier voice, "let's see what's behind the door then."

They pushed it open and walked inside, Lucy still standing at the back as defence, but she couldn't help but lower Cecil when she saw what was in there.

"But this is... River keep watch and keep Rory safe."

"You don't have to tell me."

"I know" Lucy admitted "habit."

"So fancy telling me what I'm looking at?" Rory asked, slightly annoyed but grateful that they were making sure to keep him safe.

"Did Amy ever tell you about the time she was locked in the TARDIS and the Doctor had to live a normal life for a week?"

"I think she mentioned it." He replied, "The top floor didn't really exist, or something like that. Yeah?"

"Exactly like that, it was a form of a perception filter disguising the space ship on top as the first floor." Lucy shrugged, "However what you're looking at it is that space ship. This is on Craig's house in 40odd years and yet it's currently here.

She stepped forward to have a proper look and a ringing sound went off.

"It's an alarm."

"I'm on it." River went to go see if there was anything outside and after a couple of seconds came back in and shrugged, "there's nothing out there."

"Maybe there really are no life signs here." Rory suggested sounding hopeful. Both women just looked at him and he sighed, "or maybe not."

River walked up to the console and using her scanner tried to figure out anything useful, she looked up at Lucy and Rory surprised by what she had found out.

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

"These tunnels. They're not just here, they're everywhere. They are running under the surface of the entire planet."

"And they are definitely not made by silurians?" Lucy asked, wanting confirmation.

"No the age of them is all wrong for silurian, plus when I say they are everywhere I mean _everywhere_."

"Well that's good to know." Lucy said with a fake cheerful voice, "So we have no where we can run to, to get away from whatever it is that doesn't show up as a life sign."

"Nope."

"And no chance that they've died either." Rory added

"Nope" River repeated.

"Well that's just brilliant."

There was an electrical build up behind Rory, both women immediately had their guns at the ready.

"I thought you said there was nothing there." Rory said standing completely still, not wanting to see what was behind him.  
"Well I didn't see anything." River replied, "Maybe they hadn't got there when I looked. I don't know."

"RORY" Lucy shouted and shot the thing that was behind him.

**Thanks again for all the reviews, I love all of you and they never fail to make me smile. Please don't stop  
Rea**


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